Lost file

S

sharcm1

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I was typing a very long report and in the middle of typing I watched as all the words were erased from the page as if someone was holding a super backspace. It didn't do it letter for letter but it was a rapid backspace. I am using a brand new macbook. I saved my file and the file save was gone also. I can't find it anywhere on my hard drive. I searched for it and still couldn't find it. It's like it never existed. Can someone help please and tell me what happened and what can I do to recover this very important file.
 
C

CyberTaz

At what point did you first Save? How frequently did you save while you
worked? From what you describe it sounds like you did neither. If you never
saved the file until the content disappeared there is nothing to recover.

I'm afraid it's rather difficult to speculate as to what may have caused it
to happen. It might help if you'd indicate what your current update level is
for both Office as well as OS X. Have you tried saving other documents? Does
the same thing happen when you do? Do you have any similar problem with
other programs? What other details can you supply?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
 
J

Jim Gordon MVP

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I was typing a very long report and in the middle of typing I watched as all the words were erased from the page as if someone was holding a super backspace. It didn't do it letter for letter but it was a rapid backspace. I am using a brand new macbook. I saved my file and the file save was gone also. I can't find it anywhere on my hard drive. I searched for it and still couldn't find it. It's like it never existed. Can someone help please and tell me what happened and what can I do to recover this very important file.

Hi,

This topic is covered in our Dummies book. To read the book on line:

1. Log into Amazon.com
2. Go to this URL
http://tinyurl.com/Office-2008-for-Dummies
3. About 1/3 the way down the page, look for the Inside This Book Learn
More section, and in the Search Inside this Book field type:
autorecover
4. Click the Go button
5. When the book opens, click on page 174 in the left panel.
6. Read the heading Recovering AutoRecover Files

-Jim
 
R

rbarline

A couple thoughts. First, the most likely thing that happened is that as you were typing along you inadvertently typed the following keystrokes: Command-A delete. What this does is select all text and delete it. It can happen very quickly, and to a newbie it appears that your text vanished for no reason (I have done this while typing quickly and not paying attention to what is going on on screen). When this happens, the solution is to simply Command-Z (i.e. undo) back to the point where you get everything back, then proceed typing. The worst thing you can do is to save the document, since you just saved a blank document and there is no way to retrieve your text (actually, if you have autorecovery turned on in prefs then there may be an autosaved previous copy in your Microsoft Office folder, but that is for other's to explain).

I suspect that not being able to find your file is unrelated to the previous problem. Are you new at using computers by any chance? Saving a file and not being able to subsequently locate it is something that people often do before they learn the skill of file management (i.e. saving with descriptive file names and saving to folders other than the desktop). Luckily, there is an easy way to locate your file. First, just go to File/Open Recent and look in the list. Depending on your prefs settings, the list will show a certain number of your most recent documents. If you don't remember the file name, just open each document one at a time until you get the one you are looking for. With the file open, hold the Command key and click on the icon in the title bar. That will open a drop-down window that shows the path to the file location.

Good luck!
 

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