Help, what does, "Do you wish to revert...?" mean ? !

[Robert Macy]

Every now and then, after blundering around, I get this question.

"Do you wish to revert to ...?" Yes/No

The worst part is that I am now locked into something, there's no
escaping answering. AND! no indication or intuitive concept of what
the consequences of my decision will be.

Not knowing how I got to this point, I've sometimes answered NO and
sometimes answered YES. Sometimes losing data, sometimes stomping on
files [it seems]. Each time I wish I had one more option CANCEL to get
back to whatever got me to this question, but that option is not
allowed.

Would someone please explain what energizes that question, and exactly
what damage I can do to my stored, modified document files.

Robert

 

[Daddy]

It would be more helpful if you would post the complete wording of messages
that you see. Otherwise, you're forcing someone to guess at what the problem
might be.

Also, when asking about Word, it's really important to state what version of
Word you are using and what version of Windows you have.

So here is my guess:

If a document becomes damaged, so that Word can no longer save it, then the
next time you open Word it will ask if you want to use ("revert to") the
last saved version of the document. If you agree to this you will lose all
changes made to the document since the last time it was successfully saved,
but usually you have no other choice.

Typically, Word automatically saves your document every 10 minutes, so
unless you manually saved your document more recently, that's the version of
your document that Word will use.

Daddy

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I believe that one instance in which you get that message is when you have a
document open, edited but unsaved, and you click the name of the same
document on the File menu (usually inadvertently). Word wants to know if you
want to revert to the saved version, losing your current edits.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Robert Macy]

I believe that one instance in which you get that message is when you have a
document open, edited but unsaved, and you click the name of the same
document on the File menu (usually inadvertently). Word wants to know if you
want to revert to the saved version, losing your current edits.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USAhttp://word.mvps.org

Every now and then, after blundering around, I get this question.

"Do you wish to revert to ...?"  Yes/No

The worst part is that I am now locked into something, there's no
escaping answering.  AND! no indication or intuitive concept of what
the consequences of my decision will be.

Not knowing how I got to this point, I've sometimes answered NO and
sometimes answered YES. Sometimes losing data, sometimes stomping on
files [it seems]. Each time I wish I had one more option CANCEL to get
back to whatever got me to this question, but that option is not
allowed.

Would someone please explain what energizes that question, and exactly
what damage I can do to my stored, modified document files.

Robert

Thank you for your reply.

I'll bet that's what has been happening. Because Word doesn't open a
second application like Notepad or Paint, etc.; it is very easy to
have multiple incidences open 'inside' the application. Sometimes
question appears when closing out the application, not just opening.

That definitely explains why sometimes YES causes loss of data and NO
would have been best, but then again, sometimes YES is best in order
to save data as close application.

Do you have any rule of thumb?

Robert

 

[Robert Macy]

It would be more helpful if you would post the complete wording of messages
that you see. Otherwise, you're forcing someone to guess at what the problem
might be.

Also, when asking about Word, it's really important to state what versionof
Word you are using and what version of Windows you have.

So here is my guess:

If a document becomes damaged, so that Word can no longer save it, then the
next time you open Word it will ask if you want to use ("revert to") the
last saved version of the document. If you agree to this you will lose all
changes made to the document since the last time it was successfully saved,
but usually you have no other choice.

Typically, Word automatically saves your document every 10 minutes, so
unless you manually saved your document more recently, that's the versionof
your document that Word will use.

Daddy

Every now and then, after blundering around, I get this question.

"Do you wish to revert to ...?"  Yes/No

The worst part is that I am now locked into something, there's no
escaping answering.  AND! no indication or intuitive concept of what
the consequences of my decision will be.

Not knowing how I got to this point, I've sometimes answered NO and
sometimes answered YES. Sometimes losing data, sometimes stomping on
files [it seems]. Each time I wish I had one more option CANCEL to get
back to whatever got me to this question, but that option is not
allowed.

Would someone please explain what energizes that question, and exactly
what damage I can do to my stored, modified document files.

Robert

Thank you for your reply. Yes, should have noted Word97 on Win98FE

Exact wording?! I would have to write down in long hand, something
that went by during a frustrating period of trying to do something.
Just not concentrating on the exact wording while fussing around with
Word. More interested in accomplishing my edit to a .doc file.

Rarely [I think] do I have a corrupted file. But your mention of
saving every 10 minutes is interesting. That could definitely cause
weird stuff.

Compounding this problem is can't remember exactly what action causes
the question to pop up. Just appears and have no idea how to cancel
the action to go back to before I did that action. The action, that
caused the question to come up to begin with. At least then, I could
figure out what action brought the question up. From experiencing
multiple times, sometimes the data is destroyed and sometimes the data
is saved, just did not seem consistent. I think Suzanne may have
predicted my misstep.

Sometimes the error message pops up when opening, sometimes when
closing, and I can't remember which action I was doing to figure out
which answer is best this time. That's why a 'cancel' would have been
nice.

Robert

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm afraid I don't have any rule of thumb. I generally try not to have TOO
many documents open and to keep my wits about me. What can be very
confusing, though, is opening a lot of documents with similar names
(especially when the File menu shows only part of the name). Sometimes I do
click on one that's already open instead of one I just closed and want to
open again. Usually, though, I have them open just for reference and am not
editing them, so no harm is done.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

I believe that one instance in which you get that message is when you have
a
document open, edited but unsaved, and you click the name of the same
document on the File menu (usually inadvertently). Word wants to know if
you
want to revert to the saved version, losing your current edits.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USAhttp://word.mvps.org

Every now and then, after blundering around, I get this question.

"Do you wish to revert to ...?" Yes/No

The worst part is that I am now locked into something, there's no
escaping answering. AND! no indication or intuitive concept of what
the consequences of my decision will be.

Not knowing how I got to this point, I've sometimes answered NO and
sometimes answered YES. Sometimes losing data, sometimes stomping on
files [it seems]. Each time I wish I had one more option CANCEL to get
back to whatever got me to this question, but that option is not
allowed.

Would someone please explain what energizes that question, and exactly
what damage I can do to my stored, modified document files.

Robert

Thank you for your reply.

I'll bet that's what has been happening. Because Word doesn't open a
second application like Notepad or Paint, etc.; it is very easy to
have multiple incidences open 'inside' the application. Sometimes
question appears when closing out the application, not just opening.

That definitely explains why sometimes YES causes loss of data and NO
would have been best, but then again, sometimes YES is best in order
to save data as close application.

Do you have any rule of thumb?

Robert

 

[Robert Macy]

I'm afraid I don't have any rule of thumb. I generally try not to have TOO
many documents open and to keep my wits about me. ....snip...
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USAhttp://word.mvps.org

"...to keep my wits about me."

ouch. ...but true

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yeah, I hope that didn't sound patronizing. The fact is that most of our
worst errors occur when we panic. In most cases, Undo is the Panic Button,
but some actions can't be undone, and that's where we really get in trouble.
As you say, though, it's the dialog that pops up when you're concentrating
on something else that is always the danger. If you have your mouse options
set to select the default button in dialogs automatically, a stray click
(intended for something else) when a dialog pops up) can be a disaster.
Something flashes in your face while you're working on something else, then
vanishes, leaving you wondering, "What did I just say OK to?"

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

I'm afraid I don't have any rule of thumb. I generally try not to have TOO
many documents open and to keep my wits about me. ....snip...
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USAhttp://word.mvps.org

"...to keep my wits about me."

ouch. ...but true