Closed without saving?? Never fear!

Did you ever accidentally close a document that you had worked on for a while and clicked “no” when prompted to save changes? Good news! The applications in the Microsoft Office 2010 suite have the ability to recover these documents. Instead of gnashing your teeth, try this!

First, make sure that AutoRecover is turned on!

1.  In the backstage view (File tab), click Options. In the Save category, make sure that the check box for Save AutoRecover information every xx minutes is selected.
Note: This must be enabled separately for each application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)! 

 

2. Test it! When you close a document, you should see the following warning: “Do you want to save changes… If you click “Don’t Save”, a recent copy of this file will be temporarily available.”

To recover an unsaved document:

          1. Open the backstage view (File tab).

          2. From the Info category, click Manage Versions. The Recover Unsaved Documents button will appear.

(Alternately, choose Recent from the menu.

Near the bottom of the window, click the Recover Unsaved Documents button!)

  

             3.  Open the unsaved document from the UnsavedFiles folder.

     4.  When the document reopens, don’t forget to save it properly! You can thank me later :) 
  


     - Irene Heckert