One other problem with saving to A:, though, is that it remains your logged
drive till you select another. Removing the floppy from the drive while it's
still active can cause problems, though probably not as many problems as can
be caused by editing a file on the floppy drive (where you can get into
serious trouble if you remove a disk prematurely--that is, before Word is
through doing all the file swapping and deleting it does when you close the
file).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"POP" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Sorry Guys, now I'm really confused! Surely it has been
said here that saving to A: or even E: direct from Word is
likely to cause corruption.

That depends on the size of the file and whether or not you are
editing it on that drive. Save To simply writes to the target
drive. Nothing wrong with that and it's very similar in context
to a Copy except hte file is open.
BUT, after you've done a Save As, do NOT continue to edit the
file, because you will now be editing ON that drive.
Save As has to be the LAST save you do. Which means, of
course, also Save a copy of the same thing to the C or D or
whatever drive it started out on, for further editing in the
future. So using the Save As method, you effectively have to
save twice to keep it all in sync.
So, Save As, though it works, is not a panacea. Copying the
closed file is the best method.


Therefore 'save as' is not
right (which is what I used to do). But copying from C: to
E: under Windows Explorer is OK away from Word.

Copying a closed file is OK from any app anywhere. Word does not
have a Copy function, afaik.

Then my
question was: can we use a macro in Word to get temporarily
out of it to Windows Explorer and then do the copy and then
return, like System used to get you out of BASIC (shows age
g) and let you do things in DOS and then return.

Yes, a VB script or macro or windows script or even a batch file
could do that.


Alternatively, can I make some form of macro that will
operate from a hot key when in Windows Explorer? BTW, I
have got VB5. This would be OK as I spend a lot of time in
Explorer...

Yes, that will suffice. So would a batch file if you'd rather
write that. Either way, you need to be copying a closed file,
that's all. Once they're closed it doesn't much matter what
created them.
You might also want a script to pull the file back off A or E
for when you want to do further edits to it. It could do the
copy and start Word for you.

I do not write scripts for others though; sorry.

If you know VB a little, you might enjoy RemoteKeys at
http://www.freewarehits.de/
Caveat: I believe it's unsupported and not all the
documentation is in English, but it's bug free near as I can tell
and incredibly useful. Handles both mouse/keyboard macros at
same time. Takes a few minutes to get your head around, but once
you do, it's very easy to use. It can even be activated when an
app starts, or by a hot key you decide on. Incredible program,
IMO. Like I said, not supported, though; the author seems to
have moved on but left his site behind.

HTH
Pop


TF wrote:

You can also do it from the File, Open or File, SaVeAs
dialog from Word. Right-click on the file and use Sent
To, Drive X.

Terry

wrote in message
...
I take it that you all see no problem in copying and
pasting within Windows Explorer then (rather than via a
Macro in Word). Or, another thought, can one access
Windows Explorer from Word, do it there, and come back
again - all in a Macro?


TF wrote:

The reasons were mainly that floppies are
(relatively) VERY slow to read or write and not the
most reliable media. When Word saves (especially in
older versions), it needs to build up the saved file
and it does this by creating a temporary file in the
target folder gradually adding or overwriting bits
until it has a complete file. This is then rewritten
and saved as the document file. But the temp file is
locked and active until the document is fully closed
and Word/Windows releases the temp file.

Problems become serious if the file is fairly large
or the floppy is partially filled because the
document file and the temp files may have
insufficient room to co-exist on the floppy. To make
matters worse, simultaneous reading and writing to
the floppy is happening at the very slow rate of the
floppy drive.

So all in all, it was hardly surprising that floppies
were a disaster with Word! The best and safest
solution for you is to write your macro to save the
file to the main HDD and then COPY or MOVE it to the
mem stick.

Although Word is not so demanding these days,
problems still do occur. I have a colleague who has
now twice corrupted large documents using a memory
stick to move between home and work to continue
working on a document.

You now know the risks!

--
Terry Farrell - Word MVP
http://word.mvps.org/

wrote in message
...
Quite a lot has been written about avoiding
corruption of documents, and one piece of advice
has been "do not save to A: from Word (though from
Explorer is okay). I habitually save to a memory
stick/flash drive in drive E and I would like to
automate this with a VBA macro. Does anyone have
any information on why saving to A: from Word
causes corruption, and more importantly whether or
not saving to E: poses the same danger?
Alternatively (and OT) is it possible to write a
VBA (or other) Macro to invoke this procedure from
a hot key while in Windows Explorer (where I
currently do this manually)?

TIA