Amazing Tips - Recovering Unsaved Documents

Recovering Unsaved Documents!

Microsoft has your back on this!

How many times has this happened to you, you close a program quickly and in the "do you want to save changes" dialog box you reflexively click the "Don't Save" option...and then you realize that you didn't really mean to do that! This is usually followed by a burst of expletives as you mentally kick yourself for being so stupid. Well, Microsoft has your back on this. You can recover unsaved documents for up to four days from closing them!

To recover unsaved documents:

1. Open your program up again, if you closed it, and click on the File tab. 
2. Click on Recent and you will see in the lower right side of the screen those wonderful words...Recover Unsaved Documents (or Workbooks or Presentations, depending on program). 
3. Click the link and it will reveal that, unbeknownst to you, there is a folder labeled "Unsaved Files", created by your new best friends at Microsoft. Recent documents will be listed there for you to choose from. 
4. Click on a file and click Open
5. Now that your recovered document is open, don't forget to save your file!

Keep in mind the files in this folder are only saved for four days so don't dawdle, reopen the file quickly.

You might want to check the settings in your Office programs to see if this feature is turned on (it is by default) and adjust the AutoSave frequency. To do this:

1. Open the Office program (Word, Excel or PowerPoint)
2. From the File tab choose Options
3. On the left panel choose Save
4. Note the save documents settings and make sure that both Save AutoRecover information every XX minutes and Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving have a check mark

The save button is still your best friend and the mantra I try to impress in my classes is to "Save Early and Often" which is still the best policy. But it's good to know you have Microsoft watching out for when you rashly close documents without saving!

Just a word about the AutoRecover setting of every 10 minutes, which is the default. If you want to minimize your exposure in case your document is unexpectedly closed, you might want to consider changing this to 5 minutes.

One more thing, you might have noticed the green arrow and box in the top picture of this post. Those are pointing to push pinned documents. For information on this great office feature see my post on this helpful topic.

Have you bought my book yet? If not, why not??  100 Amazing Computer Tips - Shortcuts, Tricks, and Advice to Help Everyone from Novice to Professional, is available NOW at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble in both print ($14.99) and ebook ($7.99) formats. There's also a handy link on top right side of this window for your shopping convenience. If you've bought my book, THANK YOU! Please consider writing a review on Amazon.com.

Happy computing!

Diane

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Tip #86 - Developing a Backup Strategy

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #86 - Developing a Backup Strategy

One of the most disturbing days of a computer user’s life is the day that their computer dies. It’s a little known fact that every computer has a surprise expiration date and everyone needs to be prepared for when that day comes. I’m not suggesting that this is a real built in expiration date but just know that one day your computer will die without warning.

There are countless options available from free document back up to services that will back up the entire hard drive. All of these are better and more reliable than the external drive sitting next to your computer. This external local backup is popular because people feel it is more secure than using a remote location. But you should understand that commercial remote locations use a series of encryptions that make them extremely safe and secure. The most troubling aspect of local backup is that the backup device is in the same environment as the primary computer. If you get a power surge from a lightning strike it will blow out your computer and the backup.

Microsoft has Skydrive, which offers free cloud-based storage for documents and pictures.  There is a fee if you need more than 7GB of storage, but that’s a lot of free storage.

Amazon Cloud Drive provides 5GB of free storage. When it was first introduced, you could also use it to stream music. Now that functionality is in a separate service: Amazon Cloud Player. With this latter service, you can upload and stream up to a rather minimal 250 songs to Windows PCs, Macs, and Apple and Android devices.

Apple iCloud comes with 5GB of free storage, but it's more than just storage. Music, apps, books, and TV shows you purchase from the iTunes store, as well as your Photo Stream, can also be stored and streamed from it, and none of the purchased media counts against your storage quota.

There are also paid services, such as Carbonite (www.carbonite.com) that you might consider. The advantage of these services is that they automatically back up everything on your computer without having to store files in special folders as you do with the other services. If your computer dies-- OK when your computer dies -- you buy a new computer, log on to your Carbonite account and click the “Restore” button. All of the files that were on your old computer are transferred to your new computer automatically.  This is the service that I use and feel it’s well worth the $60 a year. They do offer multiple computer discounts.

I don’t want to be there when you realize that all of those pictures of your kids, grands or pets just evaporated so, please, do something to back up your documents now.

Happy & Safe Computing!

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My book, 100 Amazing Computer Tips - Shortcuts, Tricks, and Advice to Help Everyone from Novice to Professional, is available now at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble in both print and ebook formats. 

Happy Computing!

Diane

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Diane McKeever, the author of 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days, by subscribing to her Facebook posts or visiting her web page, www.dianemckeever.com. 

Back up, back up, everybody back up

100 Amazing Computer Tips

Back Up Solutions

Before my blog officially starts on February 1, 2013, I thought I would write a couple of housekeeping tips. The first and most important tip is how to keep your files safe and backed up. BTW, note the Windows and Apple logos. I will use these to help you identify which operating system the tip is for. In this case, it can be used by both systems.

From the moment you bring home your new shiny fast computer, it ages. It has a secret expiration date that will arrive when it's least convenient. One day you'll turn your computer on to finish working on that important document and nothing will happen. At that point it's too late to wonder if your back up software has been doing its job. Many people have a back up drive attached to their computer. While this is a good first line of defense, my concern is that the files are being backed up in the same environment that your computer lives in. If your computer gets a jolt of electricity, that same jolt will take out your backup. I strongly recommend, and actually require, that my clients use Carbonite. I have had a Carbonite account for years and have benefited from it more than once.

How Does Carbonite Work?
The way Carbonite works is that it uses double encrypted cloud storage to make a back up of the files on your computer. As long as you have an internet connection, your files are being backed up. When you save a file you'll see that the icon for that file has a small amber dot in the lower left corner indicating that the file is waiting to be backed up. Within minutes that dot will turn to green to let you know that the file is backed up. If you notice that a file is not selected for backup you can simply right click it and choose "Back this up" from the menu. There are a couple of levels of support. The least expensive is a $59/year subscription per computer (they do offer about a 10% multi-computer discount) that will back up all of your data files. This does not back up your software. The HomePlus plan for $99/year makes a mirror image of your computer and does back up the software along with the files. I know I sound like a Carbonite salesperson but I get no discounts, I just feel this product is the real deal.

So what happens if (when) your computer dies. You buy a new computer, install the software and then sign in to your Carbonite subscription. You click the "Restore" option and all of your files will be transferred on to your new computer. It may take a few hours but you'll be a happy person when you see that you haven't lost anything.

Another benefit of Carbonite is that you can access your files from any computer at any time. If you're traveling and need to make changes to a document, you can sign on to your account and view the files. Pretty slick.

Don't tell me I didn't warn you that you might lose your files if you don't subscribe to Carbonite.

Happy Computing!

Diane

Buy my book at Amazon.com. It's only $14.99 and it's packed with 100 Amazing Computer Tips! They're nicely organized and really easy to follow.

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Diane McKeever, the author of 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days, by subscribing to her Facebook posts or visiting her web page, www.dianemckeever.com .