Q: (from Cynthia)
In Microsoft Word 2003 the name of a file turns from black to blue once it has reached a certain age, if it is not being regularly updated. After that, whether you update it or even change its name, it remains a blue font. Is there any way to control this?
A:
I believe this is a characteristic of Windows XP rather than Word 2003. It appears that the drive being used to store the documents supports compression and that after a document is unused for ?? it is automatically compressed (and the filename is colored blue). If you want to change this, you can either decompress the entire drive or decompress the file in question (which will restore the filename color to black).
To decompress the entire drive:
- Right-click the volume to decompress
- Choose Properties
- De-select the “Compress drive” check box
- Click OK to close the Properties dialog box (this will take several minutes to complete)
To decompress the file in question:
- Right-click the file in question
- Choose Properties
- Click the Advanced button
- De-select the “Compress contents” check box
- Click OK to close the Advanced Attributes dialog box
- Click OK to close the Properties dialog box
Or you could leave the compression alone, but stop changing the file color:
- Double-click Folder Options in the Control Panel
- Select the View tab
- De-select the “Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color” check box
- Click OK to close the Folder Options dialog box