Actually, if you are using Word '07 on Vista, you can recover an unsaved
document as long as it didn't crash before the default background save was
completed. When you first opened Word after the crash a pane on the left with
versions of the file you lost should have displayed. Check out each one and
decide which to keep, use Save As, and then delete the rest.
You can reset the default time between AutoRecovery saves. Go into Word
Options, click on the Save tab, then under Save Documents, there should be a
check mark in the option, "Save AutoRecovery information every X. X
represents the minutes in the menu. Use the tiny arrows to increase or
decrease the time. I set mine to every five minutes.
If you dismissed the Word instance which displayed the AutoRecovery versions
without selecting one they are gone. You do still have one last chance to
attempt recovery. Underneath the option to change the period of AutoRecovery
is the location these recovered files are stored. Open Word Options, click
the Save tab and then open Explorer and browse to that location. See if you
can open one of the saved files. If you recently cleared the cache it may be
gone for good.
You could try this if Word did not automatically open saved file after a
crash. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Open. In the Open
dialog box, type the path and file mask to display a list of the
automatically saved files. If you are running Vista type this:
%userprofile%\AppData\Microsoft\Word*.asd
In XP type:
%userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\*.asd
Click the name of the file that you want to recover, and then click Open. If
you are not sure which file to open, do the following:
The automatically saved files are named by using the following convention:
Auto Recovery save of Original File Name. For example, if your original file
is named letter to aunt marry, the automatically saved file name should be
Auto Recovery save of letter to aunt marry.
Optionally, you can modify the file list in the Open dialog box to make it
easier to browse through the files to find the right one:
Click the arrow next to the Views button and then click Details. Click the
column header to sort the list by Name, Size, Type or Date Modified. Click
the column header again to sort the list in the opposite order.
Continue to open files until you find the one you are looking for. After you
find the file be sure to save it.
