recovery of presentation.. frantic

[daviddoc]

I have been working sev hours on a presentation and suddenly my computer shut
down for some automatic update.. when it came back up three older ppt
presentations were in the file recover documents list.. but not the one i was
hoping to use in less than 4 hours.. is there any way to get this??

 

[JGT]

daviddoc - Possibly one of the MVPs will have a solution for you but I think
you are up the creek without a paddle. To my knowledge if you are using the
system the autoupdate will not reboot, it will give you a warning and when
the warning expires it will reboot if you have not been using it. For my
usage I turned off autoupdates, I automatically download them but I don't
apply them. Too many times I've gone to bed with numerous things not
completed and I don't want to come back to a PC that was rebooted.

In PP I've set my auto recovery save to 10 minutes. I got myself into a jam
similar to your situation before I changed the setting. With the auto save
set to 10 minutes this has saved me a ton of times.

 

[daviddoc]

thanks for your input... i had so many windows open (including at least 5
different ppt files) that i may have missed a warning... and i threw in the
towel.. rescheduled the talk and read about how to set the thing to save
automatically... what a waste of time, but live and learn...
David

 

[Ute Simon \(MVP\)]

I have been working sev hours on a presentation and suddenly my computer

shut
down for some automatic update.. when it came back up three older ppt
presentations were in the file recover documents list.. but not the one i
was
hoping to use in less than 4 hours.. is there any way to get this??

AutoRecovery only kicks in, if you have saved and named a presentation. If
it did not have no name yet, there's no chance to recover it.

If it had been saved, did you share it with someone? Sometimes a file can be
retrieved from Outlooks Sent Mail folder.

For the future: Make it a habit to save and nam a presentation before
designing the first slide and to press Ctrl+S (the shortcut for Save) at
least every time you start a new slide. So you don't lose too much work, if
your computer crashes.

Best regards,
Ute

 

[David Marcovitz]

AutoRecovery only kicks in, if you have saved and named a presentation. If
it did not have no name yet, there's no chance to recover it.

If it had been saved, did you share it with someone? Sometimes a file can be
retrieved from Outlooks Sent Mail folder.

For the future: Make it a habit to save and nam a presentation before
designing the first slide and to press Ctrl+S (the shortcut for Save) at
least every time you start a new slide. So you don't lose too much work, if
your computer crashes.

Best regards,
Ute

I joke with my students that I save my file every time I:

- go to the bathroom
- answer the phone
- say hi to someone in the hall
- pick my nose

In reality, I follow Ute's advice and save just about every time I start a
new slide (including the first slide).

--David
--
David M. Marcovitz
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Associate Professor, Loyola University Maryland

 

[Kath]

Here's another bit of advice when saving files: Save versions for
multi-hour-long projects!

I picked up this habit back when I was a graphic designer, and it has paid
off several times ever since. When I say save versions, I mean that
approximately every hour on the hour, do a Save As and create a new version.
If the file name is "Marketing Strategy" for example, name it "01 Marketing
Strategy" and an hour or so later, "02 Marketing Strategy, " then "03
Marketing Strategy" and so forth.

One time a few years back I had started working on a file at 9:00 a.m. and
kept saving versions. In the afternoon, the file I was working on had
corrupted. I had to trash the corrupted file because it was hopeless getting
it back to a healthy state.

I went back to the previous version and lost only 45 minutes' worth of work
-- instead of losing the whole day's work.

Of course, to keep your storage system(s) from filling up, you should trash
the older versions as you add newer ones. While I am working on a project, I
usually keep three or four prior versions. When the project is complete, I
keep about two. When the project becomes passe, I trash all prior versions.

Good luck!

 

[David Marcovitz]

That's a good strategy. Aren't there add-ins that can do this for you
automatically?
--David

Here's another bit of advice when saving files: Save versions for
multi-hour-long projects!

I picked up this habit back when I was a graphic designer, and it has paid
off several times ever since. When I say save versions, I mean that
approximately every hour on the hour, do a Save As and create a new version.
If the file name is "Marketing Strategy" for example, name it "01 Marketing
Strategy" and an hour or so later, "02 Marketing Strategy, " then "03
Marketing Strategy" and so forth.

One time a few years back I had started working on a file at 9:00 a.m. and
kept saving versions. In the afternoon, the file I was working on had
corrupted. I had to trash the corrupted file because it was hopeless getting
it back to a healthy state.

I went back to the previous version and lost only 45 minutes' worth of work
-- instead of losing the whole day's work.

Of course, to keep your storage system(s) from filling up, you should trash
the older versions as you add newer ones. While I am working on a project, I
usually keep three or four prior versions. When the project is complete, I
keep about two. When the project becomes passe, I trash all prior versions.

Good luck!

--
David M. Marcovitz
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Associate Professor, Loyola University Maryland

 

[Kath]

I do not know of any such add-ins. I hope someone responds with a link!

 

[David Marcovitz]

Now you have forced me to actually look for it. Here is information about an
add-in for PowerPoint:

Free Sequential Save Add-in by Shyam Pillai
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00494.htm

--David

 

[Kath]

Thanks, David. This should be helpful to many folks, including me!

Kathi

 

[Kath]

More great advice! Thanks, Steve!

Same strategy, different file-naming convention:

I don't trust MS to get it right 100% of the time if there are spaces in file
names, so I use underscores. Then I'll append the date when each version was
first saved (and tack on an -01, -02 etc if I save multiple versions per day).

Marketing_Strategy_2009-09-03
Marketing_Strategy_2009-09-04

If several of us are passing files back and forth, add initials:

Marketing_Strategy_SR_2009-09-04

Notice that the main name of the file comes before all the "tracking" stuff. That
way all the versions appear together in Windows Explorer, File Open dialogs 'n
stuff.




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[Lucy Thomson]

I do that too Kath. It also helps when the client says "actually, you know
that thing you did in the first one you showed me that I didn't like and
told you to delete? Well, I've changed my mind"

Lucy

--
Lucy Thomson
PowerPoint MVP
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au

 

[Kath]

Excellent point, Lucy!

I do that too Kath. It also helps when the client says "actually, you know
that thing you did in the first one you showed me that I didn't like and
told you to delete? Well, I've changed my mind"

Lucy

--
Lucy Thomson
PowerPoint MVP
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au

 

[Jean-Pierre Forestier [MVP[]

Does someone know how to put the "seq save" button in the Quick Task Bar?