*all* of my documents suddenly became "hidden"

[Guest]

help. I was desperately searching for a Word document I'd been working on
all day ... I had saved it numerous times, but after exting Word could not
find the doc.

It was originally an email attachment, so I went to hunt around for a "temp"
folder where it might be stored. It soon became clear to me that all the
pertinent folders are "hidden," so I went about checking the "show hidden
files" box for several of the folders under \documents and settings.

Long story short, now ALL of the contents of "My Documents" are showing up
as "hidden." If I uncheck show hidden files" they all disappear. If I check
the box, they show up in translucent colors as hidden files.
What now?
thanks,
Mary

 

[Tim Slattery]

help. I was desperately searching for a Word document I'd been working on
all day ... I had saved it numerous times, but after exting Word could not
find the doc.

It was originally an email attachment, so I went to hunt around for a "temp"
folder where it might be stored. It soon became clear to me that all the
pertinent folders are "hidden," so I went about checking the "show hidden
files" box for several of the folders under \documents and settings.

Long story short, now ALL of the contents of "My Documents" are showing up
as "hidden."

That's what the "read-only" box for directories does: it's a short cut
to set or clear the read-only flag for *all* files in the directory.
(Directories themselves don't have a read-only property.) So go back
to the directory's properties box, and click on that box until you get
a box with out a gray or green block and without a check (that will
probably happen on the first click). Then click "Apply" and the files
will no longer be read-only.

Look here: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=326549 for more
information.

 

[Guest]

That's what the "read-only" box for directories does: it's a short cut
to set or clear the read-only flag for *all* files in the directory.
(Directories themselves don't have a read-only property.) So go back
to the directory's properties box, and click on that box until you get
a box with out a gray or green block and without a check (that will
probably happen on the first click). Then click "Apply" and the files
will no longer be read-only.

Look here: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=326549 for more
information.

Thanks very much Tim, that solved my problem.
I guess I have a final observation or question about Word: when opening an
email attachment and working on it for several hours, why didn't it matter
how many times I saved it with ctrl-S, it still 'disappeared' upon exit with
no warning. This seems like bad behavior for an app. (maybe I'm the only
one dumb enough to have made this mistake, but I doubt it.) And Word's
auto-backup location defaulted to an extra-super hidden location that I never
was able to find. I ran multiple searches for any documents created today,
told it to search hidden folders, no dice. So I was feeling pretty
disappointed in MSFT by the end of today after rewriting my entire doc from
scratch.

 

[Guest]

You needed to save it as (save as) and choose a file name else it's still an
e-mail attachment still located in your e-mail folders.

 

[Rock]

Thanks very much Tim, that solved my problem.
I guess I have a final observation or question about Word: when opening an
email attachment and working on it for several hours, why didn't it matter
how many times I saved it with ctrl-S, it still 'disappeared' upon exit with
no warning. This seems like bad behavior for an app. (maybe I'm the only
one dumb enough to have made this mistake, but I doubt it.) And Word's
auto-backup location defaulted to an extra-super hidden location that I never
was able to find. I ran multiple searches for any documents created today,
told it to search hidden folders, no dice. So I was feeling pretty
disappointed in MSFT by the end of today after rewriting my entire doc from
scratch.

When working on an email attachment first save it to a known location,
then edit it. Word was just doing what you told it to do.

 

[Guest]

When working on an email attachment first save it to a known location,
then edit it. Word was just doing what you told it to do.

Yes, I now understand that I should have moved the file, but my point was
that it would have been nice to be warned that I was saving a doc to a
"location" that was about to be vaporized. And/or it would be nice for
Word's default backup to be a location that actually makes sense, instead of
a place that seems designed NOT to be found by the user who needs it.

 

[--Alias--]

Yes, I now understand that I should have moved the file, but my point was
that it would have been nice to be warned that I was saving a doc to a
"location" that was about to be vaporized. And/or it would be nice for
Word's default backup to be a location that actually makes sense, instead of
a place that seems designed NOT to be found by the user who needs it.

It would be nice if Word served you a cup of tea while you were typing
but it isn't set up to do that. It would be nice if ...

Alias

 

[Rock]

:



Yes, I now understand that I should have moved the file, but my point was
that it would have been nice to be warned that I was saving a doc to a
"location" that was about to be vaporized. And/or it would be nice for
Word's default backup to be a location that actually makes sense, instead of
a place that seems designed NOT to be found by the user who needs it.

Change the backup location to something that works for you. It's a
basic premise to check the defaults and set them to something that fits
your needs. The user has to accept some responsibility for what they
do. Programs are not mind readers. After all you should be the one in
charge.