The document name or path is not valid

G

Guest

I opened up an email attachment and it automatically opened up in word and I
started working on the document and then clicked "save" but I didn't click
"save as." When I tried to open the document I got a message that said:
The document name or path is not valid. Try these suggestions.
*Check the file permissions for the document or drive.
*Use the File Open dialog box to locate the document.
And then it lists where my file is: (C:DOCUME~1/OWNER/.../firstdraft1.3.doc)
I have tried searches for it and nothing comes up, but I can see it when I
click the "file button" only it comes up as
(C:DOCUME~1/OWNER/.../TEMP/firstdraft1.3)
How can I get this file back?
 
J

Jay Freedman

I'll try to break this to you gently... You have to repeat your work, and
this time use Save As. Or, better, use the Save Attachments command in the
email program first, and then open the file in Word.

When you open an email attachment by double-clicking it in the mail message,
that creates a temporary file in the TEMP folder. You edited that temp file
and saved the changes into the TEMP folder. When you closed the email
message, the email program helpfully deleted the temp file. It's gone.

There are programs that can snoop around among the leftover bits of deleted
files and _maybe_ find the temp file if it hasn't already been overwritten
by later activity on the disk. I haven't used any of those programs, so I
can't tell you how hard they are to use, or which ones might be better than
others. It'll probably be faster overall to reopen the email, _save the
attachment_ as a file, and repeat your editing in that file.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
G

Guest

Try this (if you are using Outlook):

Start menu | Run

type "%temp%" - Click OK

This opens a Windows Explorer window.

Click the Folders icon on the toolbar.

Click the + next to the Temporary Internet Files folder.

You'll see the OLK folder listed. Outlook attachments are stored there.

But...if the email has been deleted, the attachment file is deleted too.
 

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