Microsoft KB Archive/870853

Knowledge Base

Office 2003 and 2007 Office documents open read-only in Internet Explorer

Article ID: 870853

Article Last Modified on 9/13/2007

---

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Office Word 2003
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
• Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
• Microsoft Office Excel 2003
• Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003
• Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
• Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
• Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
• Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003
• Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
• Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
• Microsoft Office Access 2003
• Microsoft Office Professional 2007
• Microsoft Office Standard 2007
• Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007

---

Important This article contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure that you back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows XP and Windows Vista

SYMPTOMS

When you open a Microsoft Office 2003 or a 2007 Microsoft Office document in Microsoft Internet Explorer, the document opens with read-only permissions, and you cannot make changes to the document.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs in, but is not limited to, the following scenarios:

• You click a hyperlink to an Office document, and the hyperlink is from another Office document.
• You click a hyperlink to an Office document, and the hyperlink is from an e-mail message.
• You click a hyperlink to an Office document, and the hyperlink is from a Microsoft SharePoint Services site or a Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server site.

RESOLUTION

Note The steps in the Resolution section will have no effect when you open documents and hyperlinks from a Microsoft SharePoint Services site or a Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server site.

To resolve this behavior so that you can open documents that are in the Internet or Local intranet security zones in Internet Explorer with read/write permissions, you must add the following registry key:

• For Office XP
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Common\Internet\OpenDocumentsReadWriteWhileBrowsing = 1

• For Office 2003
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\Internet\OpenDocumentsReadWriteWhileBrowsing = 1

• For the 2007 Office system
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Internet\OpenDocumentsReadWriteWhileBrowsing = 1

To do this, follow these steps.

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

1. Quit all Office 2003 and 2007 Office programs that are running.
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then right-click the following registry subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version_number>\Common\Internet
   

Note In this subkey, <version_number> corresponds to 10.0, 11.0 or 12.0 for the specific Office version that is installed. You must create the registry key in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER tree. The same setting under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE tree has no effect.

1. Point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
2. Type OpenDocumentsReadWriteWhileBrowsing, and then press ENTER.
3. Right-click OpenDocumentsReadWriteWhileBrowsing, and then click Modify.
4. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
5. On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

REFERENCES

For more information about this behavior in Microsoft Office XP, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

867838 Office XP document in a SharePoint Team Services from Microsoft document library opens as read-only in Internet Explorer

Additional query words: readonly, readwrite, DAV, WebDAV, Vista, Internet Information Server (IIS), KB867838, Save As, Microsoft Word Document, read/write mode

Keywords: kbprb KB870853

---

Send feedback to Microsoft

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.