Microsoft Word, as well as the operating systems of this developer, have one unpleasant property, which is that the editor quite often quits in emergency mode, which leads to the loss of all changes in the created or edited document. But recruiting tons of text can be quite problematic. So what to do? How to return an unsaved Word document? For this, ordinary users can offer several simple methods. But first, let's see what measures can be taken to avoid the appearance of such situations.
Preventive measures
So, to protect yourself from the loss of unsaved files or important changes made in the process of working on a document, you need to perform several simple steps. To avoid such situations, the editor itself has a special function for automatically saving data (and even for those cases when you did not save the document, that is, did not assign a specific name to it).
How to save documents in Word using automatic mode? Everything is simple! Open the options window through the file menu, and then go to the save section.
In the options shown in the right part of the main window, at the very top there is a field for setting the time interval for automatic saving. By default, the interval is usually set to ten minutes. Set auto-save with an interval of one minute and save the changes (it will not work for less than a minute). After that, even if you did not save the created or edited document yourself, it can be restored quite simply.
Note: to quickly save a document at a time when autosave is inactive, in older versions of the editor you can use the standard combination Ctrl + S, in versions of 2010 and higher, the combination Shift + F10 is used for this .
Use to restore Word backups
We’ll talk about manual file recovery a little later, but for now let’s dwell on the automated tools of the editor itself. Most likely, many noticed that when a program or system freezes up, when either restarting a failed application or restarting Windows completely, Word launches a special panel on the left, in which autosaved copies of the last edited document with the time of the last changes are marked. There may be several.
Just select the file that most closely matches the original (either the original document or the file with the changes), and then click the restore button. In this case, it is advisable to immediately save the document again by assigning it a different name, which should differ from the one created automatically.
Return document upon opening
Despite such automation, you should not rely on this method only, because sometimes you may not get the desired result. How to return an unsaved Word document in this situation? One of the simplest options is to use the editor’s own tools.
If anyone paid attention, when working with any documents opened in Microsoft Word, the program automatically creates a hidden copy of it even before activating the save.
Typically, such files are hidden and contain the tilde sign (“~”) as the first character, and the standard .tmp format corresponding to temporary files is used as an extension for them.
In order not to use complex software tools at first, after starting the editor, if restoration is not offered, you can use the options for opening a document, then from the list opened by clicking on the arrow on the open button, select the option “Open and restore”. It is possible that your document will be present in the list of objects that are potentially suitable for recovery. Again, the method is far from the most convenient and for “clean” files that you have not physically saved, it is far from always suitable.
Can I find an unsaved Word document?
Based on the foregoing, we can now assume that you did not achieve a positive result using the previous methods and tools. In this case, you can try to find the desired document (or rather, a copy of it) yourself. This can be done quite simply. Firstly, the editor itself creates such copies in ASD and WBK formats by default. Secondly, in the autosave settings, you can immediately view the folders specified for copying.
Thus, you can either find the desired copy by the location of the files themselves, or search for unsaved Word documents in the most common "Explorer" by expanding objects, entering the desired one with a separator (dot) from the above in the search field and enclosing it on both sides ( or just left) into asterisks ("*").
To open a copy, use the standard method, but specify all files as the type of object to be opened, and then specify the full path to the document through the browse function. If the normal opening does not work, perform the action with opening and restoring, as described above.
Note: sometimes, to save copies, the UnsavedFiles folder located in the AppData directory (or ApplicationData in older versions of Windows) of the main user directory in the system partition may be installed.
In order not to engage in his searches for a long time, you can use the Windows search system, and in the search field enter the name of the desired directory. The disadvantage of this technique is only that the recovery of Word documents will be available only for those files that were created no more than four days ago. Otherwise, among the available copies, you simply will not find them.
Recovering documents using the editor
Now let's see how to return an unsaved Word document using another tool for this, which ordinary users for the most part are not aware of. This method is also quite simple.
To perform the necessary operations through the file menu, go to the document control unit (in older versions it may be called “Version Control” and located in the information sub-section), click on the main button to the left of the file list and click on the recovery pop-up window, after which you will be presented with a list copies available for return. Again, this technique is applicable only for those cases when autosave in the editor itself is enabled and active.
Activate text converter
As one of the alternative methods, one more tool can be proposed. This is a special format converter. It is believed that it was activated in the funds of the "Office" initially, but sometimes it can be turned off.
First of all, use the programs and components section, find there either a full office suite or a separately installed Word text editor, then click on the uninstall / change button, select add components and select the text file converter in the Office general tools through the filters section, and then activate the converter recovery of documents. For it you need to set the option to start from the computer.
After completing the pre-configuration, use the parameters section directly in the editor, and in the additional general options, select the option to confirm the format conversion.
Recovering documents using a converter
Now let's see how to return an unsaved Word document using an activated converter.
To do this, you need to open the backup copy, specifying the path to the automatically saved file, set the text recovery option in the type field, and then select the restore of the previously saved copy from the menu of the open button. In this case, as you might have guessed, it will be possible to return only the text content of the document. In the case of graphics, it, of course, will not be transformed and restored, so such objects will have to be reinserted into the text.
3rd party software
Finally, if for some reason your own Word or Office tools do not suit you or none of the situations described above has anything in common with yours, you can recommend several universal applications that work just as well.
To get started, you can pay attention to utilities like the paid Hetman Office Recovery application or a free program for recovering unsaved Word documents called Magic Word Recovery. In the case of deleting files from the hard drive, bypassing the "Recycle Bin", general-purpose programs like 7-Undelete, EaseUS, Wondershare Data Recovery, Active Undelete, etc. will work well. In extreme cases, you can even use such a primitive utility as Recuva, which, based on a user filter, you can specify the search for only lost office documents.
If, after deleting files, additional steps were taken to save other objects that could theoretically be placed in the same sectors of the hard drive where records of deleted documents were originally stored, it is best to use the R-Studio program, which many experts call the undisputed leader among applications such an orientation. By the way, it is this application that can find deleted objects on any media even after they are fully formatted.
Brief conclusions
Summing up, it remains to note that it is easiest to use the tools of the editor itself, since software products from third-party developers may not be at hand at the right time. It is difficult to answer unequivocally which of the proposed methods is fully operational one hundred percent, because it all depends on the current situation.
However, if you evaluate all the tools from a practical point of view, it is easiest to immediately open saved copies of the ASD and WBK formats. Also, to simplify the actions performed, it does not hurt to activate a text converter. Naturally, do not forget to set the minimum interval for automatically saving documents so that such things do not happen in the future.