Bizarre Office 2019 Word issue that started happening a month ago and we only just noticed. PC running latest Windows 10 build.



Request for payment form is made as a .docx with the filename being “#1234” where this is the next vacant booking number.

When full payment is received .docx file “#1234” is edited to become an invoice showing amount paid etc. and saved as “#5678” where this is the next vacant invoice number.

The problem is that changes to “#5678” are being copied into “#1234”, which must not happen as this has to be kept intact for years for tax purposes.

What I’ve also seen is Word displays “^Nxxxx” at the very top of screen when editing a file with name in format “#xxxx.docx”.

All help gratefully received.

I can't reproduce this issue with Word 2019. The only time this might occur naturally would be if you were saving with a macro and the next invoice number is the same as the booking number. If you were saving manually, you should be warned if the filename already exists.

__________________
Graham Mayor - MS MVP (Word) (2002-2019)
Visit my web site for more programming tips and ready made processes www.gmayor.com

Thanks.

That’s exactly the why I expect Word to work and how it was working on this PC until 4-6 weeks ago.

No new SW installed as it’s the business PC and not my gaming one that gets messed around with.

If the affected documents are being saved to OneDrive, note that you have to save a document under a new name before you continue editing. Otherwise, the modifications will be added to the original document because of the automatic saving in OneDrive. See What is AutoSave? - Microsoft Support and especially the Important notice, reproduced in the screen shot below.

Attached Images

AutoSaveImportant.png (104.2 KB, 16 views)

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

See also: Save Numbered Versions by Graham Mayor, MVP


It is possible that you should be using Templates rather than a .docx file.