How does one recover something that had previously been in a Word 2000 document?

[jersie0]

I inadvertantly highlighted a couple sentences in a short Word
document today, pressed delete, then saved (happened much quicker and
easier than it sounds). I was able to easily paraphrase what the two
sentences had said and was back in business.

But that got me on a quest, as yet unsolved. I *know* that there was
a late-90s feature of Word that essentially saved successive edits to
a document all within the document (unless fast saves were enabled),
enabling recovery if one accidentally deleted something and saved. I
know that because I once actually took a 50-page document I'd been
working on for months and deleted all but the first page, and some
Word MVP savior, who I know longer remember, rescued me.

I can't remember though how this feature works; specifically how to
recover the data. Please help!

 

[PC]

I inadvertantly highlighted a couple sentences in a short Word
document today, pressed delete, then saved (happened much quicker and
easier than it sounds). I was able to easily paraphrase what the two
sentences had said and was back in business.

But that got me on a quest, as yet unsolved. I *know* that there was
a late-90s feature of Word that essentially saved successive edits to
a document all within the document (unless fast saves were enabled),
enabling recovery if one accidentally deleted something and saved. I
know that because I once actually took a 50-page document I'd been
working on for months and deleted all but the first page, and some
Word MVP savior, who I know longer remember, rescued me.

I can't remember though how this feature works; specifically how to
recover the data. Please help!

As I understand it Fast Save works by adding the changes you have made to
the end of the original document file. When the file is reopened by Word it
imports the orginal first then applies each lot of editing to the original
as it reads the rest of the file. The 'benefit' of this is saving a few
bytes or k of edits to the end of the file is a lot quicker than rewriting
the whole file.

In this case try opening it in Notepad and you should find your original
sentence's

Save without Fast Save on, rewrites the whole file as it is currently
displayed on the screen. In this case the whole file is overwritten with the
last 'edited' version. This takes longer than just adding a bit at the end.

So if you had Fast Save 'off' I suspect your goose is cooked, so to speak.

Cheers
PC

 

[Graham Mayor]

Provided you had not closed the document, undo (CTRL+Z) would have restored
the missing sentences.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

As I understand it Fast Save works by adding the changes you have made to
the end of the original document file. When the file is reopened by Word it
imports the orginal first then applies each lot of editing to the original
as it reads the rest of the file. The 'benefit' of this is saving a few
bytes or k of edits to the end of the file is a lot quicker than rewriting
the whole file.

In this case try opening it in Notepad and you should find your original
sentence's

Save without Fast Save on, rewrites the whole file as it is currently
displayed on the screen. In this case the whole file is overwritten with the
last 'edited' version. This takes longer than just adding a bit at the end.

So if you had Fast Save 'off' I suspect your goose is cooked, so to speak.

Actually Fast Saves is much more likely to corrupt your document, because
that accumulation of mini-saves can create havoc, resaving the doc fresh
each time is much safer. Turn Fast Saves off! Now that we have much more
powerful computers, it doesn't really save any time anyhow.

DM

 

[jersie0]

As I understand it Fast Save works by adding the changes you have made to
the end of the original document file. When the file is reopened by Word it
imports the orginal first then applies each lot of editing to the original
as it reads the rest of the file. The 'benefit' of this is saving a few
bytes or k of edits to the end of the file is a lot quicker than rewriting
the whole file.

In this case try opening it in Notepad and you should find your original
sentence's

Save without Fast Save on, rewrites the whole file as it is currently
displayed on the screen. In this case the whole file is overwritten with the
last 'edited' version. This takes longer than just adding a bit at the end.

So if you had Fast Save 'off' I suspect your goose is cooked, so to speak.

Cheers
PC

As Dayo pointed out, having the fast saves ON is what cooks the goose.
I have fast saves OFF. The deleted text is not visible in the
document if I open it in a text editor or in Norton Utilities.

Someone else had pointed out that if I did an Undo before saving, I'd
have solved the problem. I knew that; the issue is that I *did* save
without undoing.

Still looking for an answer to my original question: how does one
recover the "lost" portions of a Word document that has been saved
with Fast saves turned off? I know it can be done (or could be done
with perhaps Word '97), because someone rescued a document for me that
way.

 

[garfield-n-odie]

I think the "late-90s feature" you're talking about is in Tools |
Options | Save | Always create backup copy. If you have this enabled,
then Word will copy the previous version of the document as a backup
copy every time you save a document. Each new backup copy replaces the
previous backup copy. Word saves the backup copy (with a file name
extension .WBK) in the same folder as the original. When you select
"Always create backup copy", Word clears the "Allow fast saves" check
box because Word can create backup copies only when it performs a full save.

Bottom line: If you have this option enabled, then you should have the
current version of your document with a filename ending in .DOC, and the
previous version of your document saved to the same folder but with the
filename ending in .WBK. Do you?

 

[Peter Van Dijk]

I take it that nobody here uses the track changes feature of Word.

When you turn it on you can see all the changes from the time it is
first created. allowing you to undo or recompose it. Changes that have
been applied to the document are highlighted in red.

 

[jersie0]

I think the "late-90s feature" you're talking about is in Tools |
Options | Save | Always create backup copy. If you have this enabled,
then Word will copy the previous version of the document as a backup
copy every time you save a document. Each new backup copy replaces the
previous backup copy. Word saves the backup copy (with a file name
extension .WBK) in the same folder as the original. When you select
"Always create backup copy", Word clears the "Allow fast saves" check
box because Word can create backup copies only when it performs a full save.

Bottom line: If you have this option enabled, then you should have the
current version of your document with a filename ending in .DOC, and the
previous version of your document saved to the same folder but with the
filename ending in .WBK. Do you?

No, there was a way, I thought, that you could recover all the text
that had ever been in the document, because, if fast saves weren't
enabled, any text that was changed or altered got moved to a new place
within the document. You might lose the formatting, but you'd at
least have the content.

If memory serves me, if you open a Word document in a text editor, you
can see more of its content than just what shows in Window, including
"former text." But I also think there was a way to take a Word file
and, using some part of Word, recover that "lost stuff" from the
document.

I don't use backup copies, just because it would double the number of
Word files on my computer.

I have "show hidden files" enabled in Windows 98 explorer, and there
are no hidden files in the directory with the file I'd asked about.

 

[Toolman Tim]

Peter, that's correct - but you should have told the OP how to turn it *on*.
Click on Tools, Track Changes, Highlight Changes. That puts all of it into
the display. BUT if track changes wasn't turned on before the changes
occured, the deleted stuf isn't there.

 

[Jay Freedman]

No, there was a way, I thought, that you could recover all the text
that had ever been in the document, because, if fast saves weren't
enabled, any text that was changed or altered got moved to a new place
within the document. You might lose the formatting, but you'd at
least have the content.

No, you're simply wrong about that. If you don't have Fast Saves, File

Versions, or Track Changes turned on, then saving the file will just

overwrite any previous contents. It's gone, period.

If memory serves me, if you open a Word document in a text editor, you
can see more of its content than just what shows in Window, including
"former text." But I also think there was a way to take a Word file
and, using some part of Word, recover that "lost stuff" from the
document.

Nope, no such thing exists. When you open a Word file, you can set the
Files Of Type box in the dialog to "Recover text from any file" and
see all the text -- but it's the same story as in my previous
paragraph. If you didn't save something, it isn't there.

I don't use backup copies, just because it would double the number of
Word files on my computer.

Now, let me ask you: do you drive without insurance? This is the same
principle -- either you accept the burden of being prepared for a
disaster, or you accept the consequences.

To see what it's really going to cost you, total up the sizes of all
the Word documents on your drive. Compare that to the free space on
the drive. If you're like most computer owners these days, it's less
than the proverbial drop in a bucket -- at most a few megabytes out of
tens of gigabytes. And if you make off-machine backups onto removable
media, you can remove the backup copies from your hard drive.

 

[Rick Merrill]

I inadvertantly highlighted a couple sentences in a short Word
document today, pressed delete, then saved (happened much quicker and
easier than it sounds). I was able to easily paraphrase what the two
sentences had said and was back in business.

Good for you. Otherwise you would have had to use your backup copy.
You DO backup, don't you? If not, you just learned a Valuable Lesson.

But that got me on a quest, as yet unsolved. I *know* that there was
a late-90s feature of Word that essentially saved successive edits to

Yes: turn on 'track changes' BEFORE you need it.

 

[jersie0]

No, you're simply wrong about that. If you don't have Fast Saves, File
overwrite any previous contents. It's gone, period.


Nope, no such thing exists. When you open a Word file, you can set the
Files Of Type box in the dialog to "Recover text from any file" and
see all the text -- but it's the same story as in my previous
paragraph. If you didn't save something, it isn't there.


Now, let me ask you: do you drive without insurance? This is the same
principle -- either you accept the burden of being prepared for a
disaster, or you accept the consequences.

To see what it's really going to cost you, total up the sizes of all
the Word documents on your drive. Compare that to the free space on
the drive. If you're like most computer owners these days, it's less
than the proverbial drop in a bucket -- at most a few megabytes out of
tens of gigabytes. And if you make off-machine backups onto removable
media, you can remove the backup copies from your hard drive.

Yeah, it was the simple "recover text from any file" option that I'd
somehow overlooked. Thought it was more complicated than that; what
do I know?

On fast saves, my understanding, confirmed by a lot of what I've read
online, is that the fast saves ON renders the text recovery
inoperable; you must have them OFF to enable text recovery. You and
several others disagree. So I'm not sure what is correct.

My choice to not save backup copies of files is for two reasons: (1)
Although I have timed backups enabled, I will also manually save my
work, especially after doing something tricky. As such, it's quite
likely that if I inadvertantly trash something in a document, the
error will exist in the backup copy too, because of the regular
saving; (2) I'm not concerned about the size of the disk space gobbled
up by having all those backup copies. I'm concerned that it makes it
that much harder to find a file I want, with twice as many
Word-readable files on the disk. If Word saved, say, ten backup
copies, and saved them into a separate directory, I'd probably use the
feature. I'm not perfect, but although I probably use Word for 10+
hours a week, and have done so for more than a decade (preceded by a
decade of WordPerfect use), I've had fewer than five catastrophic
losses of data - probably no more than one or two.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Yeah, it was the simple "recover text from any file" option that I'd
somehow overlooked. Thought it was more complicated than that; what
do I know?

On fast saves, my understanding, confirmed by a lot of what I've read
online, is that the fast saves ON renders the text recovery
inoperable; you must have them OFF to enable text recovery. You and
several others disagree. So I'm not sure what is correct.

My choice to not save backup copies of files is for two reasons: (1)
Although I have timed backups enabled, I will also manually save my
work, especially after doing something tricky. As such, it's quite
likely that if I inadvertantly trash something in a document, the
error will exist in the backup copy too, because of the regular
saving; (2) I'm not concerned about the size of the disk space gobbled
up by having all those backup copies. I'm concerned that it makes it
that much harder to find a file I want, with twice as many
Word-readable files on the disk. If Word saved, say, ten backup
copies, and saved them into a separate directory, I'd probably use the
feature. I'm not perfect, but although I probably use Word for 10+
hours a week, and have done so for more than a decade (preceded by a
decade of WordPerfect use), I've had fewer than five catastrophic
losses of data - probably no more than one or two.

Given that the backups are called Backup of filename.wbk it is hardly likely
that they will get in the way of your file searches. They will not show up
in the file open window unless you ask for them.

Word does not automatically do 'timed backups'. You need extra software for
that - see http://www.gmayor.com/automatically_backup.htm

Unless you actually close the document, all the changes you have made to it
are available for reversion by using Undo (CTRL+Z)

Fast Saves stores all sorts of rubbish in the document leading to bloat and
potential corruption. Fast saving is what it doesn't do. In this context,
Jay is correct.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Someone else had pointed out that if I did an Undo before saving, I'd
have solved the problem. I knew that; the issue is that I *did* save
without undoing.

Actually the issue is that you *closed* the doc before Undoing. Word will
hold an Undo list through saves, unlike say, Photoshop.

Might help in the future.

DM

 

[Bob S]

I inadvertantly highlighted a couple sentences in a short Word
document today, pressed delete, then saved (happened much quicker and
easier than it sounds). I was able to easily paraphrase what the two
sentences had said and was back in business.

But that got me on a quest, as yet unsolved. I *know* that there was
a late-90s feature of Word that essentially saved successive edits to
a document all within the document (unless fast saves were enabled),
enabling recovery if one accidentally deleted something and saved. I
know that because I once actually took a 50-page document I'd been
working on for months and deleted all but the first page, and some
Word MVP savior, who I know longer remember, rescued me.

I can't remember though how this feature works; specifically how to
recover the data. Please help!

The feature you remember is File | Versions

Whether using it is a good idea; that is another question...

Bob S

 

[Chad DeMeyer]

Oh, it's a great idea! ... if you don't mind enormous file sizes, even when
your document appears to have little actual content, leading to delays in
opening, saving, etc. and an increased likelihood of the document becoming
corrupt.

Regards,
Chad DeMeyer