Autosave feature in Excel 2003

[Guest]

In Office 2000 there was the autosave feature which worked great, now in
Office 2003 it was replaced by the autorecover feature. I have done searches
in google and in this office newsgroup and all say pretty much the same thing
really not answering why the autosave was taken away. And alot of references
point to Jan Karel Pieterse's addin called AutoSafe. Does anyone know the
actual reason why the autosave feature was replaced and taken away altogether
in Office 2003? Thank you!

 

[Gord Dibben]

Jim

Only the developers know for sure.

Word had the Autorecovery for a few versions prior to Excel getting it.

Perhaps the Excel developers were influenced by this.


Gord Dibben Excel MVP

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the quick response Gord, thought I would just check since i have
had several people complain in the last couple days. Seems the autorecovery
works quite well as a replacement to me, but some people don't like change
very much.

Oh well, thanks again!

 

[Guest]

I'm pretty sure that Exel's Autosave is an Add-in, available in Tools/Add-Ins

 

[Dave Peterson]

But they serve different purposes.

If excel/windows crashes, then the autorecovery file is very nice. But if
you're in a habit of never saving, then maybe autosave is better.


Gord Dibben posted this:

Autosave.xla from Office 2000 or 97 will work with Excel 2002 or 2003.
If you have a previous copy, move it to your Office\Library.
To download the 97 version see here........
http://www.stat.jmu.edu/trep/Marchat/sp2001/Library.htm

Personally, I like to do my own saves, so I never use autosave. It just scares
me that I'll end up with something I don't want. But I like autorecovery for
those crashes!

 

[Gord Dibben]

Jim

Autorecovery works well to recover files you were working on when Excel
crashes.

The recovery file is deleted if you close the file with no disruption.

This is fine if you remembered to save when closing.

It does not make timed incremental changes that stick as you work.

The advantage for most users having the pre-2002 autosave was that the file
was hard-saved at timed intervals, so the most work you would lose would be
maybe 10 minutes if you closed the file and forgot to save.


Gord Dibben Excel MVP

 

[Guest]

Thanks all, appreciate the very helpful feedback. I think autorecovery is
very adequate but as mentioned by one of you if you are in the habit of not
saving autosave is better.