locating autosaved file

[emilr17]

I had a file with three columns of data. I had intended to sort all three
columns based on the third column. I accidentaly only sorted the third column
losing the connection to the first two columns. I did not notice, saved and
quit. Upon reopening the document it was naturally impossible to undo. The
third column data no longer held the proper relationship to the first and
second column data. Can I retrieve an autosaved copy or the original? It
seems that my autosave options are turned on for every ten minutes.

 

[dlw]

autosave does not make a backup file, it just saves what you are doing to the
current file.

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you're really using autosave, then that means every 10 minutes, your original
file is overwritten with the newly saved file.

But if you're using AutoRecovery, this means that another file was created every
10 minutes--just in case excel (or windows) crashed.

But since you closed excel normally (I'm guessing), this other file has been
deleted.

Do you have a backup of your file somewhere?

Maybe you emailed a copy and you have a copy in your sent folder?

 

[Gord Dibben]

You are out of luck.

Excel has not had an "Autosave" since version 2000.

2002 introduced "Autorecovery" which saves a temporary backup every 10
minutes but.....a big BUT........those temporary files are deleted if the
file is sucessfully closed.

i.e. Excel or the file do not crash.

So, when you think you have been saving every 10 minutes, you have not.

MS has, in my mind, misnamed Tools>Options>Save although they do state

"Save Autorecovery info every"

but to someone used to autosave being exactly that, an incremental save, it
is somewhat misleading.

Jan Karel Pieterse has an addin called AutoSafe
which doen't alert before saving.

http://www.jkp-ads.com/download.asp

(look for AutoSafe.zip)

It doesn't overwrite the existing workbook when it saves. It saves to a
user selectable folder. And when it's done, it either deletes these backups
(or puts them in the recycle bin). And the user can always restore the
backups from the recycle bin.

If you still have access to the AutoSave add-in from Excel 2000 I believe it
does work with 2007................it works with 2002 and 2003

Note: you can File>Save As>Tools>General Options>Always create a backup
which will leave you with a *.XLK file that is always one version behind the
current workbook.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP