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Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

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Jonetc15
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Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451337

Postby Jonetc15 » October 19th, 2021, 4:11 pm

I have a Dell PC, Windows 10. It has all sorts of bells and whistles which I don’t understand, including saving documents to iCloud (which I have never explored) and Microsoft Edge, which constantly informs me that various things are not in sync. I don’t really want any of these, and was happy to receive messages reminding me that I should take steps to use Microsoft Edge. All my emails are in outlook.com, which I also access from my MacBook, iPad and iPhone. In my old age I often struggle with IT in any form.

Against that (possibly irrelevant) background, here is my problem. I was dictating a letter (Dragon Naturally Speaking) when a message popped up to say that someone was following me by copying/amending my document as I typed, and to ask if I wanted to allow this to continue. I said no.

I will be most grateful if anyone can explain what is likely to be happening, granted that absolutely no one else has been given any access to my PC etc.

TIA
Jon

P.S. It would be great if someone could also kindly advise me how to turn of Microsoft Edge.

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451344

Postby pje16 » October 19th, 2021, 4:29 pm

disable, better than uninstalling
https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/ho ... 10-solved/

Sorry no idea about Dragon

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451348

Postby Lanark » October 19th, 2021, 4:48 pm

If you are getting messages asking you to upgrade to Edge, that could be because you are still using Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer is very soon going to be end-of life and unsupported, so switching to something else is advisable.

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451351

Postby Jonetc15 » October 19th, 2021, 4:52 pm

pje16 wrote:disable, better than uninstalling
https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/ho ... 10-solved/

Sorry no idea about Dragon


Thanks pje16 for the link. I meant 'disable' rather than uninstalling. I only mentioned Dragon NS for complete background.

My prime concern is how, per the message that popped up, someone else could be said to be copying my typing, which ended when I ticked the 'No' box when I was asked if I wanted to allow this to continue.

Jon

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451356

Postby pje16 » October 19th, 2021, 4:56 pm

Jon
the link does tell you kow to disable
cheers
Paul

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451374

Postby Jonetc15 » October 19th, 2021, 6:04 pm

pje16 wrote:Jon
the link does tell you kow to disable
cheers
Paul


I'm really sorry, Paul, that my message sounded ungrateful. What I intended to say is that I did indeed mean 'disable' and I didn't want to uninstall. In trying to thank you for pointing out the options I didn't make it clear that I appreciated your reply telling me about those options. I'd hate to think that I'd been unappreciative.

All the very best

Jon

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451378

Postby pje16 » October 19th, 2021, 6:27 pm

Hi Jon
thanks but I didn't take any offence, so no problem at all
I was taking a break from work so my reply was short owing to the time I had
have you managed to disable it
cheers
Paul

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451387

Postby Midsmartin » October 19th, 2021, 6:45 pm

My guess would be that the message about copying your input was something to do with a misdiagnosis of your Dragon input being translated into text.

If you have the precise wording of your message, we can Google it to see.

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451761

Postby Jonetc15 » October 20th, 2021, 7:59 pm

Midsmartin wrote:My guess would be that the message about copying your input was something to do with a misdiagnosis of your Dragon input being translated into text.

If you have the precise wording of your message, we can Google it to see.


Many thanks for your reassuring suggestion, Midsmartin, and apologies for not replying sooner. I have in fact been using Dragon NS for more than two decades and this has never occurred before; but of course modern technology synchronising everything (or trying to) is a very new concept for me.

I’m afraid that I don’t have the precise wording, but the message was to the effect that someone was copying/amending the same document as I was working on, following my typing precisely. My major concern is whether it is possible that someone has gained access to my PC.

I will be really grateful to know whether or not I have a problem by way of hacking – which doesn’t appear to be very likely.

Jon

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451767

Postby Infrasonic » October 20th, 2021, 8:22 pm

How were you accessing the Word doc?
Online via free Office Online or Microsoft 365 (aka office 365) or locally on your PC via an installed copy of Office **?

If the document is shared with anyone via say OneDrive it would be possible for them to see you editing in real time and the warning would alert both of you to the fact so you don't potentially over write each others work. If you definitely don't have a share allowed or don't want one then that should be something that needs looking at and reversing in the document settings if switched on.
If it's off and you still suspect there's an issue that would need a deeper dive to find out why.

I don't use Dragon NS but it occurs to me that with modern machine learning and artificial intelligence is there a setting in DNS that allows for it to monitor what you dictate and suggest edits, grammatical changes, spelling errors with auto-correct etc.?
Maybe the alert is to let you know that setting is switched on? Has there been a recent update to DNS that has implemented it by default?

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451783

Postby chas49 » October 20th, 2021, 8:47 pm

Was the error message something like: "The document file name is locked for editing by another user. To open a read-only copy of this document, click..."?

This is meant to indicate that a file which is available across a network is being used by someone else. Occasionally you can get the message even though only one person is able to access the file - this can happen if Word closed down unexpectedly and the 'lockfile' which it uses to determine who has control had (wrongly) not been released. There are ways to fix this but usually the simplest is to shut the machine down and restart.

Something related to this (and/or something being done by Dragon causing a strange message) sounds to me to be much more likely than some sort of nefarious access to your files

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#451832

Postby XFool » October 20th, 2021, 11:13 pm

Jonetc15 wrote:Against that (possibly irrelevant) background, here is my problem. I was dictating a letter (Dragon Naturally Speaking) when a message popped up to say that someone was following me by copying/amending my document as I typed, and to ask if I wanted to allow this to continue. I said no.

It's not something 'silly' is it? Dragon telling you it is automatically following your spoken input and amending it on the go?

I noticed this, from 2018: https://www.atandme.com/?p=2063

"It Learns. Dragon NaturallySpeaking actually improves through use. It learns about how you speak, how you sound, what words you use and it creates a database called a voice profile. This voice profile matures over time and allows Dragon NaturallySpeaking to become very accurate with regular use."

"Good flow of speech is important, even if just for short passages. Dragon NS writes everything you say; even inflections of speech such as “mmmm” and “eh”. If a user tends to use these inflections in speech, it will type these inflections. Continuously deleting them can be time consuming and frustrating. Training oneself not to use these inflections can be very tricky."

I know you have been using Dragon for a long time, so this sounds unlikely. But, if a new release, or a new PC with a more sensitive microphone...

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#452101

Postby Jonetc15 » October 21st, 2021, 7:59 pm

Infrasonic wrote:How were you accessing the Word doc?
Online via free Office Online or Microsoft 365 (aka office 365) or locally on your PC via an installed copy of Office **?

If the document is shared with anyone via say OneDrive it would be possible for them to see you editing in real time and the warning would alert both of you to the fact so you don't potentially over write each others work. If you definitely don't have a share allowed or don't want one then that should be something that needs looking at and reversing in the document settings if switched on.
If it's off and you still suspect there's an issue that would need a deeper dive to find out why.

I don't use Dragon NS but it occurs to me that with modern machine learning and artificial intelligence is there a setting in DNS that allows for it to monitor what you dictate and suggest edits, grammatical changes, spelling errors with auto-correct etc.?
Maybe the alert is to let you know that setting is switched on? Has there been a recent update to DNS that has implemented it by default?



Many thanks for your interest, Infrasonic. I was accessing the Word doc off-line using Windows 10. My wife cannot use a computer, so I am the sole user.

I certainly don’t knowingly share my document with anyone via OneDrive. I think that my PC may be set up to save to iCloud (but I confess that even if it is I have never tried to access iCloud).

On the other hand, I have just found a new mention of OneDrive. When I deleted a Word document the following message appeared:
'Deleted files are moved everywhere. Files you delete from your OneDrive are no longer available across your devices or on the web. You can restore them from your OneDrive recycle bin within the next 30 days'. I wonder whether this tells you anything about how my PC is set up, with OneDrive perhaps the problem?

I'll much appreciate your opinion, and hope to answer other replies to my post a.s.a.p., but I'm a bit slow at the moment.

Jon
P.S. My version of Dragon NS doesn’t check grammar, spelling etc but simply raises the occasional query as to whether I am issuing a command rather than dictating.

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#452347

Postby Jonetc15 » October 22nd, 2021, 7:45 pm

Midsmartin wrote:My guess would be that the message about copying your input was something to do with a misdiagnosis of your Dragon input being translated into text.

If you have the precise wording of your message, we can Google it to see.


I have just had a recurrence, so I'm able to give you the exact wording, as follows:

"Other people are editing this document.
Do you want to automatically share changes as they happen
?

Then there are three people/contact icons - orange, yellow, and green (I'm mildly colour-blind)
Box: [Don't ask me again]
Boxes: [Yes] [No]"

There is absolutely nobody who I've knowingly authorised to edit this or any other document. I'll really appreciate any suggestions.

ATB

Jon

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#452355

Postby XFool » October 22nd, 2021, 8:08 pm

Jonetc15 wrote:
Midsmartin wrote:My guess would be that the message about copying your input was something to do with a misdiagnosis of your Dragon input being translated into text.

If you have the precise wording of your message, we can Google it to see.

I have just had a recurrence, so I'm able to give you the exact wording, as follows:

"Other people are editing this document.
Do you want to automatically share changes as they happen
?

Then there are three people/contact icons - orange, yellow, and green (I'm mildly colour-blind)
Box: [Don't ask me again]
Boxes: [Yes] [No]"

This message comes from MS Office, so seems to have nothing to do with the Dragon software.

How was this document originated? Is it all your own work from the start, or are you editing a previously existing document or template? It seems somebody, somewhere must have selected this to be a shared document. An email would have been sent to the people it is being shared with:

https://www.online-tech-tips.com/ms-office-tips/share-word-doc-with-others/

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#452363

Postby mc2fool » October 22nd, 2021, 8:27 pm

Are you sure you don't have the document open elsewhere? Twice on the same PC, or also on another system, or in a tab in your browser, or ... ?

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#452474

Postby martinc » October 23rd, 2021, 11:59 am

Right click the document in explorer and click 'share', or in Word click File/Share. Click the three dots in the top RH corner and click More Options/Manage Access. Does anyone apart from you have access to the file?

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#452653

Postby Jonetc15 » October 24th, 2021, 12:42 pm

XFool wrote:
Jonetc15 wrote:
Midsmartin wrote:My guess would be that the message about copying your input was something to do with a misdiagnosis of your Dragon input being translated into text.

If you have the precise wording of your message, we can Google it to see.

I have just had a recurrence, so I'm able to give you the exact wording, as follows:

"Other people are editing this document.
Do you want to automatically share changes as they happen
?

Then there are three people/contact icons - orange, yellow, and green (I'm mildly colour-blind)
Box: [Don't ask me again]
Boxes: [Yes] [No]"

This message comes from MS Office, so seems to have nothing to do with the Dragon software.

How was this document originated? Is it all your own work from the start, or are you editing a previously existing document or template? It seems somebody, somewhere must have selected this to be a shared document. An email would have been sent to the people it is being shared with:

https://www.online-tech-tips.com/ms-office-tips/share-word-doc-with-others/


First, very many thanks to those of you who have contributed and who I haven't thanked, but I'm not able to do as much as I used to - old age...


XFool - in answer to your question as to how the document was originated, I have templates for two or three requirements - e.g. letterhead, draft emails, other drafts (such as posts on TLF...). And in replying to letters, so as to to avoid having to type name, address, reference etc I simply use a previous letter that I've sent, changing the date for my reply, keeping the subject-heading, deleting the text, saving as a new doc, and writing my reply (or typing my reply and saving as I go along, and at the end saving as a new doc).

OneDrive seems to feature in all of this. I think that my PC has been set up to save to iCloud. I don't need nor want this as I back up on an old PC (Win 7) and my MacBook laptop (using a USB memory stick) and much is printed for filing as hard copy.

The message that I described above now occurs on every document that I write. Is one answer to close OneDrive? Above all, I hope that my system hasn't been hacked into, unlikely though it seems from what has been said so far.

I really do appreciate the many efforts to help me.

Jon

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#452659

Postby Infrasonic » October 24th, 2021, 12:58 pm

mc2fool wrote:Are you sure you don't have the document open elsewhere? Twice on the same PC, or also on another system, or in a tab in your browser, or ... ?


I'd start here and then if it isn't this look elsewhere as suggested up thread.

If you are mixing Windows and Mac both ecosystems will try and get you to use their other networked services - so you may well have iCloud and OneDrive actively saving documents and that might be the issue wrt to the shared alert messages.

Even if OneDrive was switched off it has a habit of coming back from the dead with Windows feature updates - unless you take very specific steps to disable or uninstall it completely for good.

There's a few Mac users on here so they could advise on that bit if needs be.

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Re: Word doc message - someone is copying my typing

#452685

Postby mc2fool » October 24th, 2021, 2:27 pm

Jonetc15 wrote:On the other hand, I have just found a new mention of OneDrive. When I deleted a Word document the following message appeared:
'Deleted files are moved everywhere. Files you delete from your OneDrive are no longer available across your devices or on the web. You can restore them from your OneDrive recycle bin within the next 30 days'. I wonder whether this tells you anything about how my PC is set up...

That is (if we didn't need it already!) an absolutely dead clear sign that you are keeping your Word docs on OneDrive.

Start off by telling us where your documents are. If you're not sure open the doc and click on File and the Save As... and at the top it should show something like:
C: > Users > you > folder > subfolder > document-name ... or does it possibly say just OneDrive?

Even if the former, is it possible that that subfolder is being shared by OneDrive? (General question to folks familiar with OneDrive, which I'm not: is everything synced by OneDrive in a OneDrive folder on the PC, or can OneDrive be set up to sync any folder?)

In any case, the message you are reporting, the "Other people are editing this document" one, from what I can make out, can only come from Word if you have uploaded the document to OneDrive and shared it. Have you tried martinc's suggestion yet?

martinc wrote:Right click the document in explorer and click 'share', or in Word click File/Share. Click the three dots in the top RH corner and click More Options/Manage Access. Does anyone apart from you have access to the file?


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