Help! I "saved over" my original document

  • Thread starter Thread starter mikey
  • Start date Start date
M

mikey

I needed to write a follow-up letter to a company, so I opened th
original letter I had written them (MS Word document) and made th
necessary changes. Then, without thinking, I clicked the "Save" icon.
A split second later I realized I had screwed up by not saving th
follow-up letter as a new document.

I did not have the backup document box clicked, nor was I trackin
changes, and I have since exited out of Word.

Is there any possible way for me to get back to my original letter
before I accidentally "saved over the top of it?" I really need t
print a copy of the original for my records.

I am running Microsoft Office XP for Small Business
 
Hi Mikey,

No, I am afraid not. To turn this negative into a positive, learn from your
lesson.

*If you're seeing this through Rubin's crappy web site, you should know
that he does not have my permission to include this message on his website.
I own the copyright, and I grant a license to Microsoft, Google and the
usenet community. I deny Rubin the right to repost my message on his site.*

Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP
 
Also note that in XP, there's an obvious little option to Create New
Document from Existing Document. Use that and you cannot overwrite the
original.


--
Terry Farrell - Word MVP
http://www.mvps.org/word/


I needed to write a follow-up letter to a company, so I opened the
original letter I had written them (MS Word document) and made the
necessary changes. Then, without thinking, I clicked the "Save" icon.
A split second later I realized I had screwed up by not saving the
follow-up letter as a new document.

I did not have the backup document box clicked, nor was I tracking
changes, and I have since exited out of Word.

Is there any possible way for me to get back to my original letter,
before I accidentally "saved over the top of it?" I really need to
print a copy of the original for my records.

I am running Microsoft Office XP for Small Business.
 
In addition to Doug's and Terry's advice, I would add this: remember Undo.
Treat it like a PANIC button. Even when you have saved over the original
document, you can still Undo back to your starting point, re-save, then Redo
all your changes and Save As.

But I would also advise enabling the "Always create backup copy" option; it
has saved my bacon often enough to make me willing to take the time to
delete the accumulated .wbk files from time to time.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
I'm just another reader here, and appreciate, REALLY appreciate all the
advise I see here, but I wonder why some of the MVP's give such quick
advise, w/o giving us the information how to do it...........Peter (don't be
upset with this MPS's I love you all)

Suzanne S. Barnhill said:
In addition to Doug's and Terry's advice, I would add this: remember Undo.
Treat it like a PANIC button. Even when you have saved over the original
document, you can still Undo back to your starting point, re-save, then Redo
all your changes and Save As.

But I would also advise enabling the "Always create backup copy" option; it
has saved my bacon often enough to make me willing to take the time to
delete the accumulated .wbk files from time to time.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
Click to expand...
 
Since you've tacked this onto my post, I'm wondering if there's something in
it that you can't follow:

1. Undo back to your starting point: Click the down arrow beside the Undo
button (on the Standard toolbar) to display the Undo list, scroll down to
the very first action, and click on it.

2. Redo all your changes: Same thing with the Redo list.

3. Enable "Always create backup copy": on the Save tab of Tools | Options.
For more, see http://home.zebra.net/~sbarnhill/SaveOptions.htm.

4. Delete the .wbk files: You can do this in File | Open or File | Save
(you'll have to display All Files to see the .wbk files), but it's probably
easier in Windows Explorer. Just select all the "Backup of <filename>.wbk"
files and press Delete (to recycle) or Shift+Delete to delete.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

PeterM said:
I'm just another reader here, and appreciate, REALLY appreciate all the
advise I see here, but I wonder why some of the MVP's give such quick
advise, w/o giving us the information how to do it...........Peter (don't be
upset with this MPS's I love you all)

Suzanne S. Barnhill said:
In addition to Doug's and Terry's advice, I would add this: remember Undo.
Treat it like a PANIC button. Even when you have saved over the original
document, you can still Undo back to your starting point, re-save, then Redo
all your changes and Save As.

But I would also advise enabling the "Always create backup copy" option; it
has saved my bacon often enough to make me willing to take the time to
delete the accumulated .wbk files from time to time.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
Click to expand...
newsgroup
Click to expand...
 
No Suzanne I didn't mean you, I meant TF. Sorry for not making myself clear
on that. Please I meant no insult to TF either, I just wondered why he/she
didn't include how to do it......Sorry Suzanne............Peter
 
Ah, the option Terry mentions is on the New Document task pane (about
halfway down). Since he described it as "obvious," I'm sure he thought it
was, but that's because he operates with the task pane always displayed.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Peter

Suzanne is correct. Because I have the Task Pane permanently open, I
'assume' everyone else has it open too. There are many advantages of using
the Task Pane: for me it is because I want Styles Available showing whilst I
am working on complex documents. But one of the many other advantages is
that there are many more options that are not normally seen without it, such
as the Create New Document from Existing Document that I mentioned.

Terry


No Suzanne I didn't mean you, I meant TF. Sorry for not making myself clear
on that. Please I meant no insult to TF either, I just wondered why he/she
didn't include how to do it......Sorry Suzanne............Peter
 
Thanks TF, I should use that Task Pane as well, at least I would have know
how read the answer. Well, that is how I learn :-)..............Peter
 
Peter

That's how we all learn. Not one of the MVPs you find in these Newsgroup
will say that they know much more than a fraction of Word's abilities and
foibles. We all have our specialised area of 'expertise', so we all read all
the answers too.

Terry

Thanks TF, I should use that Task Pane as well, at least I would have know
how read the answer. Well, that is how I learn :-)..............Peter
 
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