my text disappeared; computer appeared to work normally. How can I get the
text back again? (hours of work)
If you haven't yet closed the document, use Undo until the text reappears.
(Probably you had a big chunk of text selected and accidentally pressed a space,
a letter key, or the Delete key without noticing.)
If the document has been closed, the material is almost certainly vanished into
the ether and there's no way to get it back, unless you happen to have saved a
backup copy somewhere.
You can try using Windows' search feature (Windows key + F) to look for some
word or phrase that's part of the missing material, and you _might_ find a
temporary file with some or all of the text, but it's very unlikely because Word
should delete its temporary files when you close it.