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Oops! I Forgot to Save It!

  • Article

One of the best things about Office programs (and just about any other application, for that matter) is that when I close a file without saving, I get prompted with a familiar message:

It’s simple, I know, but I can’t tell you how many times this has saved my bacon. I also can’t tell you how many times I have accidentally clicked Don’t Save and then have had to recreate content. I don’t know why I do this, however, I also don’t think I’m alone.

In response, Word 2010 now comes with an improved autosave feature. Here’s how it works:

       1.  You forget to save. 

       2.  You the document back up.

       3.  Go to File | Info | Versions and notice the “unsaved” version is still available.

            

          4. Click on the version and notice that you will have the option to compare and/or restore to the previously saved version.

          

A few things to note about this feature:

  •   Your document only gets saved behind the scenes every 5 minutes, but you can adjust this time
  •   This copy of the document is only kept until you choose to save new changes or for 4 days
  •   The file gets saved in the following location:
    •  Windows 7/Vista: C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles
    •  Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\User_Name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles
  •   This applies to Word 2010, Excel 2010 and PowerPoint 2010

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    This "is" the thing that I like at Office.. I knew for the 4 days, but can we change it ??

  • Anonymous
    February 27, 2012
    Didn't realise 'Versions' was there until now. Really needed it now. Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2012
    Great information - something I'm always being asked about. Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2012
    Step 2 makes no sense:      2.  You the document back up.

  • Anonymous
    October 24, 2012

  1.  You the document back up. should be:
  2.  You open the document back up.

  • Anonymous
    November 01, 2012
    This is just awesome.. this just saved me a lot of frustration!

  • Anonymous
    January 06, 2013
    Thank you so much! This saved my life!! I almost died because of my lost 12 paged essay!

  • Anonymous
    January 26, 2013
    When do files get deleted from unsavedfiles folder? when they do, how do we find them? have you tested any such undelete program that actually works for this?

  • Anonymous
    March 08, 2013
    wonderful! Saved me several hours work!!!

  • Anonymous
    May 06, 2013
    thanks for your valuable information.... its save my time..

  • Anonymous
    September 23, 2013
    I LOVE YOU FOR POSTING THIS!!!

  • Anonymous
    October 09, 2013
    Lifesaver... same thing here, I don't know why I do this (trigger happy?!?), but that version feature is very good - THANKS FOR POSTING!

  • Anonymous
    October 24, 2013
    Many thanks - Saved me an hour's worth of work.