I "saved" my Word doc...where is it??

[Guest]

I used Office (Home/Student) 2007 to open an attachment, which was a Word 97
doc. I opened it, made a bunch of changes (for several hours!) and all the
while was hitting the "save" icon. (It never asked me to "save as..."). I now
cannot find this document anywhere on my computer.
I know I should have hit "save as" and got the doc onto my C drive. But in
previous Word versions, a document like that would have been saved in a "tmp"
file that I could easily find.
Have I completely lost this document and all the changes I made to it? HELP?
Did this "compatibility mode" mess me up?

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

The file was saved in one of your temporary internet storage folders, under
the name you see as the attachment. The trick, of course, is finding it,
since those temporary folders are hidden by default. This changed file
eventually will be deleted, but is probably still there.

Read through all of the following to avoid causing it to be deleted
prematurely.

When you closed the email message that contained the attachment, you were
probably prompted as to whether or not you wanted to save changes to the
email. If you said "Yes," then you're in luck. If you distinctly recall
saying yes, then you can simply re-open the email and double-click the
attachment. It should contain your changes.

If you didn't say Yes to saving those changes, however, then DON'T reopen
the file by double-clicking the attachment. This most likely will overwrite
the changed file with a fresh copy of the original attachment.

Instead, my first try would be to open a different attachment, and to note
the folder where it's stored. Since you're using the Home/Student version of
Office 2007, am I correct that you're either using Outlook Express or
Windows Mail? If so, then it will probably be in a location that looks
something like the following if you're using Vista:

C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5\ZC43BWPO

This will look a little different if you're using Windows XP, probably
beginning as C:\Documents and Setting...

In any case, I would first check in the folder shown. You might get lucky.
You will need to tell Windows Explorer to show hidden/system files.

If it's not there, then I would search [for *.doc] in the ...Content.IE5
folder (or whatever it's called). When/if you find it, copy it to a
non-temporary location before opening it.

Good luck & happy hunting.

 

[Guest]

If it was saved with the original file name, shouldn't I just have been able
to "search" for the file name, as long as I told the search to look in hidden
folders?

The file was saved in one of your temporary internet storage folders, under
the name you see as the attachment. The trick, of course, is finding it,
since those temporary folders are hidden by default. This changed file
eventually will be deleted, but is probably still there.

Read through all of the following to avoid causing it to be deleted
prematurely.

When you closed the email message that contained the attachment, you were
probably prompted as to whether or not you wanted to save changes to the
email. If you said "Yes," then you're in luck. If you distinctly recall
saying yes, then you can simply re-open the email and double-click the
attachment. It should contain your changes.

If you didn't say Yes to saving those changes, however, then DON'T reopen
the file by double-clicking the attachment. This most likely will overwrite
the changed file with a fresh copy of the original attachment.

Instead, my first try would be to open a different attachment, and to note
the folder where it's stored. Since you're using the Home/Student version of
Office 2007, am I correct that you're either using Outlook Express or
Windows Mail? If so, then it will probably be in a location that looks
something like the following if you're using Vista:

C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5\ZC43BWPO

This will look a little different if you're using Windows XP, probably
beginning as C:\Documents and Setting...

In any case, I would first check in the folder shown. You might get lucky.
You will need to tell Windows Explorer to show hidden/system files.

If it's not there, then I would search [for *.doc] in the ...Content.IE5
folder (or whatever it's called). When/if you find it, copy it to a
non-temporary location before opening it.

Good luck & happy hunting.


--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

I used Office (Home/Student) 2007 to open an attachment, which was a Word
97
doc. I opened it, made a bunch of changes (for several hours!) and all the
while was hitting the "save" icon. (It never asked me to "save as..."). I
now
cannot find this document anywhere on my computer.
I know I should have hit "save as" and got the doc onto my C drive. But in
previous Word versions, a document like that would have been saved in a
"tmp"
file that I could easily find.
Have I completely lost this document and all the changes I made to it?
HELP?
Did this "compatibility mode" mess me up?

 

[Graham Mayor]

Re-opening the attachment should not have the changes! It will be the
original unedited version. If you do open the attachment again, don't under
any circumstances click save or you will lose any chance of getting your
edits back.
You should never open Word attachments directly from e-mail - however it
*may* be possible to recover your changes. See
http://www.gmayor.com/outlook_attachments.htm

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

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

If it was saved with the original file name, shouldn't I just have
been able to "search" for the file name, as long as I told the search
to look in hidden folders?

The file was saved in one of your temporary internet storage
folders, under the name you see as the attachment. The trick, of
course, is finding it, since those temporary folders are hidden by
default. This changed file eventually will be deleted, but is
probably still there.

Read through all of the following to avoid causing it to be deleted
prematurely.

When you closed the email message that contained the attachment, you
were probably prompted as to whether or not you wanted to save
changes to the email. If you said "Yes," then you're in luck. If you
distinctly recall saying yes, then you can simply re-open the email
and double-click the attachment. It should contain your changes.

If you didn't say Yes to saving those changes, however, then DON'T
reopen the file by double-clicking the attachment. This most likely
will overwrite the changed file with a fresh copy of the original
attachment.

Instead, my first try would be to open a different attachment, and
to note the folder where it's stored. Since you're using the
Home/Student version of Office 2007, am I correct that you're either
using Outlook Express or Windows Mail? If so, then it will probably
be in a location that looks something like the following if you're
using Vista:

C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary
Internet Files\Content.IE5\ZC43BWPO

This will look a little different if you're using Windows XP,
probably beginning as C:\Documents and Setting...

In any case, I would first check in the folder shown. You might get
lucky. You will need to tell Windows Explorer to show hidden/system
files.

If it's not there, then I would search [for *.doc] in the
...Content.IE5 folder (or whatever it's called). When/if you find
it, copy it to a non-temporary location before opening it.

Good luck & happy hunting.


--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

I used Office (Home/Student) 2007 to open an attachment, which was
a Word 97
doc. I opened it, made a bunch of changes (for several hours!) and
all the while was hitting the "save" icon. (It never asked me to
"save as..."). I now
cannot find this document anywhere on my computer.
I know I should have hit "save as" and got the doc onto my C drive.
But in previous Word versions, a document like that would have been
saved in a "tmp"
file that I could easily find.
Have I completely lost this document and all the changes I made to
it? HELP?
Did this "compatibility mode" mess me up?

 

[Guest]

Graham,
Thanks so much. I did what you suggested, but in my folder called "Temporary
Internet Files," I have only one subfolder, called Content.IES, and computer
is warning me not to open that. Should I open it? Could the doc be in there?

You can be sure I won't open attachments directly from email again. It's
just that on my old PC (I just got a new one), which had Word 97, you could
very easily and reliably find those kinds of documents (ones that had been
opened directly from email and then changes saved. They were always in
C:/Documents and Settings/Myusername/LocalSettings/Temp.

 

[Graham Mayor]

By all means look in there. It is just a long list of temporary files.

In fact if you add the following macro to Word 2007's normal template

Sub AutoOpen()
ActiveWindow.Caption = ActiveDocument.FullName
End Sub

http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm

Then open the attachment again DO NOT SAVE IT!!!!!, the temporary file path
to the document will be printed across the Word title bar - something like

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.Outlook\IQDXWIJ2\Filename.doc

Unlike Office 2003, where any saves you try to make are saved to that
temporary file, Office 2007 (at least when used with Outlook 2007) seems
markedly reluctant to let you save an opened attachment to anywhere other
than a document folder and by default to My Documents - so check there also.

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

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

If this is Outlook Express/Windows Mail, it looks like you're correct. I've
used the method I outlined many times from Outlook to rescue changed
attachments, and the changes are indeed still in the attachment if you click
Yes to saving changes in the email. I was assuming that OE/WM worked the
same way. It turns out that Windows Mail and Outlook Express work
differently, however, and you're not even prompted to save changes to the
email. Yet another reason not to use OE or WM for email.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

Re-opening the attachment should not have the changes! It will be the
original unedited version. If you do open the attachment again, don't
under any circumstances click save or you will lose any chance of getting
your edits back.
You should never open Word attachments directly from e-mail - however it
*may* be possible to recover your changes. See
http://www.gmayor.com/outlook_attachments.htm

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

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

If it was saved with the original file name, shouldn't I just have
been able to "search" for the file name, as long as I told the search
to look in hidden folders?

The file was saved in one of your temporary internet storage
folders, under the name you see as the attachment. The trick, of
course, is finding it, since those temporary folders are hidden by
default. This changed file eventually will be deleted, but is
probably still there.

Read through all of the following to avoid causing it to be deleted
prematurely.

When you closed the email message that contained the attachment, you
were probably prompted as to whether or not you wanted to save
changes to the email. If you said "Yes," then you're in luck. If you
distinctly recall saying yes, then you can simply re-open the email
and double-click the attachment. It should contain your changes.

If you didn't say Yes to saving those changes, however, then DON'T
reopen the file by double-clicking the attachment. This most likely
will overwrite the changed file with a fresh copy of the original
attachment.

Instead, my first try would be to open a different attachment, and
to note the folder where it's stored. Since you're using the
Home/Student version of Office 2007, am I correct that you're either
using Outlook Express or Windows Mail? If so, then it will probably
be in a location that looks something like the following if you're
using Vista:

C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary
Internet Files\Content.IE5\ZC43BWPO

This will look a little different if you're using Windows XP,
probably beginning as C:\Documents and Setting...

In any case, I would first check in the folder shown. You might get
lucky. You will need to tell Windows Explorer to show hidden/system
files.

If it's not there, then I would search [for *.doc] in the
...Content.IE5 folder (or whatever it's called). When/if you find
it, copy it to a non-temporary location before opening it.

Good luck & happy hunting.


--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com


I used Office (Home/Student) 2007 to open an attachment, which was
a Word 97
doc. I opened it, made a bunch of changes (for several hours!) and
all the while was hitting the "save" icon. (It never asked me to
"save as..."). I now
cannot find this document anywhere on my computer.
I know I should have hit "save as" and got the doc onto my C drive.
But in previous Word versions, a document like that would have been
saved in a "tmp"
file that I could easily find.
Have I completely lost this document and all the changes I made to
it? HELP?
Did this "compatibility mode" mess me up?

 

[Guest]

Graham,
I looked through all the files in that folder, and nothing looks right. No
".doc" documents, no "Word" files. Nothing familiar at all. And I don't have
time this morning to install that macro...not to mention the fact that
there's a good chance anyway that at some point last night when I was looking
for the lost document, I probably overwrote it.
But anyway, overnight, I just re-wrote all the changes I had made to my
original document. I am just going to have to chalk this one up to a lesson
learned about Word 07. I saved the links you gave me. They were very helpful.
Thanks,
Pam.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Not just Word 2007... The same precaution about not editing an attachment
directly from an email applies to all earlier versions of Word, as well.