Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Strange behaviour with wordpad

Aug 28, 2007 1:29AM PDT

When I create a new "rich text document" (on the desktop for example, right click, "new" -> "rich text document") and double click to edit it, the changes are never saved on that file.

I get the dialog "Do you want to save changes" but changes don't get saved.

Do you get the same behaviour?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
More details
Aug 28, 2007 1:46AM PDT

The problem never occurs when the document has been created from within Wordpad. But it always occurs when the document is created with the "New->" context menu.

- Collapse -
"Changes don't get saved".
Aug 28, 2007 1:50AM PDT

That could mean two things.
- No document at all, or
- An empty document
Which of the 2?

And you don't tell what happens if you do File>Save in Wordpad. Do you get an error message? If so, which. Or no error message, and still one of the above 2 conditions?

Kees

- Collapse -
Well...
Aug 28, 2007 2:03AM PDT

The file is there since I created it with right-click on desktop and "new->RTF document".

It still is there after I edit it (in any way) and try to save the changes (in any way also). But the changes aren't there. The file still exists, but is empty.

Please tell me whether you get the same behaviour to RTF documents created this way.

Thanks.

- Collapse -
(further reply)
Aug 28, 2007 2:13AM PDT

> And you don't tell what happens if you do File>Save in Wordpad. Do you
> get an error message? If so, which. Or no error message, and still one
> of the above 2 conditions?

I don't get any error messages at all. Just, if the document was created by "right click->New->Rich Text Document", I cannot save any changes to it (even though I get the normal dialogs and it gives the impression that everything is saved as normal when in reality is not)

Please (someone) tell me if you get the same behaviour.

- Collapse -
I just ran into that one.
Aug 28, 2007 1:51AM PDT

The owner was new to Windows so they thought that the New document would contain their changes. Let's do this step by step.

1. Right click, New Rich Text Document (I may call the a RTF from time to time.

2. Type stuff in and close the document. Answer yes to save changes.

3. The owner then right clicked and did the New Rich Text Document and showed me it open a document without the changes.

It took awhile to explain that they were not opening the old document but creating a new blank document. I see you double clicked to edit it but you didn't tell how you re-opened the same file. In their case they thought it was with that right click new...


Bob

- Collapse -
. . .
Aug 28, 2007 2:06AM PDT

But that's not what I'm doing. I'm an experienced windows user. When I reopen the file after having saved changes, I open the same file, and see no changes there.

Please tell me if you have the same problem on your Vista machine.

Thanks.

- Collapse -
No, works fine here.
Aug 28, 2007 2:15AM PDT

I just found it interesting that this (new owner) thought it should work that way.

I tested this on my Vista laptop by creating said file on the desktop. You didn't tell a lot of gritty details but you could make it a warranty issue since "it's busted."

Bob

- Collapse -
Thanks, Solution found.
Sep 8, 2007 3:04PM PDT

This hotfix solved my problem.

It was not easy to find, and the description didn't exactly match my problem, but it was the right hotfix.

- Collapse -
This hotfix
Sep 8, 2007 3:05PM PDT