File locking with OSX Server & Microsoft Word

Question

We have a small office LAN based on a Airport Extreme bases station. Periodically Microsoft Word reports a break in connection to the shared folder where we store documents to get disconnected. When that happens and the user reconnects to the share, the user gets the file read-only message for the Word document that was open at the time.
I have found that in order to clear the read-only flag, I have to restart the server and open the Word file on the server with the ID of the user who was editing the file on the remote computer. Only that seems to clear the file locking that causes the file to be read-only.
I cannot figure out a less drastic way to release the lock file. I don't see any hidden temp files in the same folder as the document that is locked for editing found by ls -a or in the root direction of the shared folder in the .TemporaryItems/folders.<UID> that seems to be holding the lock.
I have run chflags nouchg <Word file> from Terminal, but that seems to have no effect either. I also used xattr to see if there were any locks held that way, but I don't see anything that way either.
File sharing to Macs only, which are configured just to use AFP through OSX Server.
Does anyone understand how the file locks of Word documents can be released directly with out restarting the server?
I should add that the underlying problems seems to be WiFi related. The behavior is that the WiFi connection seems to break long enough that the shared volumes disconnects. Outlook also causes a break. This behavior seems to have started with 10.9 and the purchase of new Retina Display MacBook Pros. I turned off AppNap on the Office applications but that is not clearly helpful. I also have been told the problem seems more likely to occur when Word is open in the background and another program like Outlook is in the foreground.
Any suggestions appreciated.

Answer 1

Apple write an operating system and also produce file sharing software as part of that to be used as a file server. Apple provide documentation for third-party software developers on how they should write software to work with Apple's software and also give those developers early access to new versions so those third-party developers can test and if needed make adjustments and issue updates to cope with any Apple changes.
Some third-party developers are good at dealing with this, some are bad, and some totally ignore what Apple does and give the impression they don't care if their product works properly or not. I think we can all judge where Microsoft sits.
It appears Microsoft have never paid any attention in particular to how Apple expect file-locking to be handled when accessing files on a Mac server. There have been problems for years and years and years with Office. Two other problems I have seen which seem different to yours but probably related are -
With Office documents it is supposed to be possible for more than one person to edit the same file at the same time, consider it a miracle if this actually works
With Office in particular Word, there is an auto-save function, unfortunately the way this seems to be implemented it seems that Word creates a new temporary file each time it auto-saves the document and keeps all the previous temporary files open still, this eventually means potentially over a hundred temporary files are open - just for one Word document and you can then hit a limit on the total number of files you are allowed to have open at the same time. At this point further auto-saves fail, and you also encounter great difficulty doing a real full save of the document.
I do not hold Apple completely blameless over this issue, it is likely their file-locking implementations change too often, and have inadequate documentation, however even considering this a company the size of Microsoft with the amount of sales (and profit) they derive from Office for the Mac has no excuses at all for failing to put the effort in to resolve any such clearly critical problems.
We could go on and on about other areas where Microsoft don't play by the (software) rules. Even in Windows Office does not obey the standard print dialog rules Microsoft specified themselves!
Unfortunately not only is Office for Mac upgraded infrequently, but even when new paid for upgrades are released Microsoft have a history of still not fixing bugs. It goes without saying that a mere free update is even less likely to actually fix a bug, typically such free updates only address security issues. The next version of Office is going to be Office for Mac 2014 see http://www.macworld.com/article/2106643/microsoft-will-release-a-new-version-of- office-for-mac-this-year.html
One area I confidently predict Microsoft not to resolve in Office for Mac 2014 is that fact that Word for Mac still does not support right-to-left languages like Hebrew and Arabic. This is despite the fact that OS X itself has supported this for years and years, and despite the fact other Mac programs support this including the free TextEdit and Pages - both of which can read Word files. Some people may remember that at one point the Israeli Government temporarily banned all Microsoft software over this issue. See http://apple-beta.slashdot.org/story/03/10/15/2215249/israeli-government-suspend s-microsoft-contracts This issue goes back over TEN years!!
I note that Microsoft has now taken their OfficeForMac blog offline, probably due to the weight of criticisms. I would not say it is due to out-right anti-Microsoft hate, that war ended long ago. We just want products that work. I myself do use Microsoft products, even at home - where they are the best solution, so I use Microsoft Media Center for example. Sadly this is now being neglected by Microsoft.