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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
March 1, 2009
Q.
I have a template file that I use weekly
that I want to set so that it cannot be
changed and will force me, after I have
filled it out, to save it with a different name. How
can I do that?
A.
What you can do is set the files Read-Only
attribute bit which will prevent the file
from being saved without giving it a new
name. To explain further, let's say that you
are writing a weekly newsletter of some
kind. Parts of this letter like the
headings, logo, etc., are the same each
week, and all you want to do is fill in the
text. So you create a template in Word with
all the reusable headers, logo, etc., in it
and save it as "newsletter template.doc".
Now, when
you open this template and add the text to
this template, it is easy to accidently
click Save instead of Save As, and overwrite
the template with the filled in news letter.
If you set the read-only attribute on the
template file, you can still open it and
fill it in, but you cannot save it unless
you give it a different name. This saves the
integrity of the template.
There are
six attributes but only four that any folder
or file can have that are easily changed by
the user. They are Bit-0 Read=Only, Bit-1
Hidden, Bit-2 System, and Bit -5 Archive;
simply abbreviated as R, H, S, and A. Bits 3
and 4, for Volume Label and Directory, are
pretty much controlled by the operating
system so I won't cover then here. Since the
days of DOS V2, these attributes can be
changed by using the application called
"attrib" from the command prompt. Since
Windows 95, they can be changed without
using the command prompt. Here is briefly
what they do.
Read-Only:
Most software, when seeing a file marked
read-only, will refuse to delete, modify or
overwrite it. This is pretty
straight-forward. This is the one that you
want to set to keep your template from being
overwritten. To make a file Read-Only, right
click on the filename or icon, choose
Properties. At the bottom of this dialog
click the box in front of Read-only and
click OK. You will not be able to overwrite
it now.
Hidden:
This one is pretty self-explanatory as
well; if the file is marked hidden then
under normal circumstances it is hidden from
view. By default, Windows is installed set
to hide these files. To change this setting
so that hidden files can be seen, click My
Computer, Tools, Folder Options, the View
tab and click the dot in front of "Show
hidden files and folders". Just what the
real value of hidden files and folders may
be escapes me unless one just wants to hide
them from themselves.
System:
This flag is used to tag important files
that are used by the system and should not
be altered or removed from the disk. In
essence, this is like a "more serious"
read-only flag and is for the most part
treated in this manner. The use of this
attribute has been somewhat arbitrary in the
different versions of Windows. At one time
it probably served a good purpose, but in
today's Windows, it has little real use
value.
Archive:
This
attribute is probably the most used, and the
most valuable of them all. This is a special
bit that is used as a "communications link"
between software applications that modify
files, and those that are used for backup.
YOU
DO BACK UP FREQUENTLY, DON'T YOU???
Backup
software allows the user to do an
incremental backup, which only selects for
backup any files that have changed since the
last backup. This attribute bit is used for
this purpose.
When the
backup software backs up ("archives") the
file, it clears the archive bit (makes it
zero). Any software that modifies the file
subsequently, sets the archive bit (makes it
1). The next time that the backup software
is run, it knows by looking at the archive
bits which files have been modified, and
therefore which need to be backed up. This
bit is set when the file is opened then
closed for any reason even if no changes
were made.
Windows
Explorer can display the file attributes of
each file. Open any folder that contains
files. Click View, and choose Details. In
any blank space in the header row, right
click and select attributes from the list of
many possible columns that you can display.
A new column will display with the
attributes of the files and folders. They
can be none, R, H, S, A, or any combination
of these.
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