Save Prompt to a File Opened from a Browser

[Natelle]

My coworker had a senior moment (I can say that cuz I am getting up there
myself). But so did Microsoft Word. She opened a file off her web browser
and made about 3 hours worth of changes. Well, she went to close the file and
got a save prompt asking her if she wanted to save chanes and she said yes,
thinking all her changes were saved. Well, since she opened the dang thing
off the internet, she is not allowed to save any changes that way, so it just
closed--no prompt whatsoever saying she couldn't save it or anything. So we
expected to find it somewhere in a temp directory.

She is using Vista with Office 2003. Are there any suggestions on avoiding
this in the future (besides learning from the mistake)? She did a search of
"Everywhere" for the correct filename and didn't get it... Is it possible her
search did not cover all the temporary directories and is there a place this
file might yet be on her hard drive?

Thanks so much,

Natelle B.
San Diego

 

[Paul B]

My coworker had a senior moment (I can say that cuz I am getting up there
myself). But so did Microsoft Word. She opened a file off her web browser
and made about 3 hours worth of changes. Well, she went to close the file and
got a save prompt asking her if she wanted to save chanes and she said yes,
thinking all her changes were saved. Well, since she opened the dang thing
off the internet, she is not allowed to save any changes that way, so it just
closed--no prompt whatsoever saying she couldn't save it or anything. So we
expected to find it somewhere in a temp directory.

She is using Vista with Office 2003. Are there any suggestions on avoiding
this in the future (besides learning from the mistake)? She did a search of
"Everywhere" for the correct filename and didn't get it... Is it possible her
search did not cover all the temporary directories and is there a place this
file might yet be on her hard drive?

Thanks so much,

Natelle B.
San Diego

Set your browser to download .doc files to desktop rather than
open directly. Then open manually.

BB,
p.

 

[Natelle]

That's what she was doing up to that point (a few years now we've had these
files on the Web). It will automatically do whatever radio button you
selected the last time--either Save on disk or Open with the program
suggested based on the file extension. She usually Saves to disk and that's
why it didn't happen til now. Sometimes she does view docs as she does not
want to save them to her disk.. This time she had hers set to open, and
that's why this occurred.

 

[Natelle]

Thanks for your reply.

I have to check with her and verify for sure that there was no dialog saying
that Save couldn't be accomplished and to save as something else. I thought
that was for sure but she may have gotten impatient and "clicked ahead," not
seeing any subsequent dialog boxes.

 

[Graham Mayor]

If there was no warning, it seems likely that the file was saved to a
temporary file. Whether that file remains or has been cleared is another
issue entirely. If she opens again and choose 'save as' - WITHOUT SAVING -
what is the default folder offered to save the file? If that is a temporary
file - the file may well be still contained in it - see also
http://www.gmayor.com/outlook_attachments.htm which covers a similar issue.

Someone who works for three hours on a file without saving once (if that is
what happened) needs a reality check. She needs to get into the habit of
using SaveAs to save to a new location as soon as she opens the file, then
to save at regular intervals.

One small consolation - Word 2007 will not allow you to save to a temporary
folder in this way. Whether that makes it worth upgrading is again another
matter.

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

My web site www.gmayor.com

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

 

[Paul B]

Thanks for your reply.

I have to check with her and verify for sure that there was no dialog saying
that Save couldn't be accomplished and to save as something else. I thought
that was for sure but she may have gotten impatient and "clicked ahead," not
seeing any subsequent dialog boxes.

A couple of other thoughts. In Firefox you can set .doc downloads
to Always Save, and then no dialog will come up. FF with
extensions is *far* better than IE anyway. Worth checking out.

Or in Word you can put a Save As button on the toolbar that maybe
she can get in the habit of using in these situations.

bw,
p.

 

[Natelle]

Good idea. I tried it on my PC but i have XP/Word 2003. The Save-As opens
to a temp directory, and will not allow me to save there. I get a dialog box
that tells me it can't save.

I think she must have missed a crucial dialog box that says it couldn't save.

Yes, that's true, everyone should hit Save often... I'm thinking it was
subconscious, he he--that's another user group. She has been doing this for
years; she did it the wrong way this time.

Thanks for your help.

Natelle

 

[Natelle]

Good thought. I use Firefox, but I see she is using Explorer. She won't do
this again, she says... I was just wondering if it was a bug. But I am not
sure that she didn't get a 2nd dialog that told her that the file was
read-only. I can't try it as I don't have Vista.

Thanks for your time.

Natelle