Mac Forum / Applications / Word / June 2006

Many people, but not all, have run into the Save to Server bug with OS
10.4 and servers. The solution has been identified and is somewhat
easily implemented.

The problem is explained here-

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302979

The local UID on the user's computer needs to be changed away from the
default 501 or 502.

If you open Terminal on their computer while they're logged in, and
type "id" without quotes, it should return something like this-

uid=1025(provine) gid=20(staff) groups=20(staff)

If the uid is 501 or 502, that's bad. Change it to something much
higher like 5263214. It can be a large number. It just has to be
Globally Unique.

This tip from
http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-12077.html will help
you change the UID.

Changing UIDs in the terminal is a simple NetInfo property overwrite:
sudo niutil -createprop . /users/userName uid XXX
(replace userName as appropriate and XXX with the new UID number)

Finding and changing UIDs across the filesystem is a one-liner command:
sudo find / -user UID -exec chown userName {} \;
(replace UID with the old UID number and userName with the new user
name to associate file ownership.)

Again, it's the LOCAL UID on the user's computer that is the problem.
That's why it's somewhat random as to who gets stricken by it, and why
users with Network Home Directories never have the problem. By default,
they will always have different UIDs.