Jan 28, 2016 How to Recover an Unsaved Word Document on a Mac eHowTech. Unsubscribe from eHowTech? Google Docs How to Recover an Erased Paper or Work.
AutoRecover: Pros: Lets you recover unsaved changes to a file if Word crashes, in which case Word will offer to recover the file after reopening. Cons: (1) If the file was never saved, there will be nothing to fall back on, because AutoRecover is only triggered for documents already stored on disk. (2) If your file gets corrupted but Word does not freeze, there is a good chance that the corruption will carry over to the AutoRecover file. (3) After you quit Word normally, all AutoRecover files get deleted. If you've never saved your document (it is still unnamed) and Word crashes, you will lose all your work, whether AutoRecover was enabled or not.
If a document contains unsaved changes and you attempt to close it, Word will ask you to save changes. This will be your only chance to get the document on disk, whether AutoRecover was enabled or not. If the document is on disk and AutoRecover is enabled, Word will periodically save temporary files that will be used to rebuild your document only if Word crashes. After you quit normally, these files disappear. Sometimes Word leaves AutoRecover files behind.
Just in case, check this folder: YourHomeFolder/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 AutoRecovery and try to open any files in there. If you are successful, immediately do a Save As.
By If your power goes out or your computer malfunctions when working on an Word for Mac 2011 document, all you have to do is open the application again. Word 2011 for Mac looks for and opens any AutoRecover files for the document(s) that you were working on when an unexpected crash occurred.
Your document opens with “Recovered” appended to the filename. Choose File→Save As from the menu bar to restore the original filename and location. Word for Mac can recover files that were open because, by default, Word autosaves your document every ten minutes while you’re working on it. If you want, you can change the save time interval within the AutoRecover setting as follows:. Choose Word→Preferences→Save from the menu bar.
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Word’s Save preferences are displayed. Change the number of minutes in the Save AutoRecover Info Every: X Minutes setting.
The default is 10 minutes. Entering a lower number saves more often, but you may notice Word is more sluggish when it saves so often. Entering a higher number may make Word perform better, but you may lose more changes if a power outage or computer crash occurs.
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You can deselect this check box if you don’t want Word to save an AutoRecover file. You might do this for extremely large documents that take a long time to save. Of course, if you experience a power outage or computer crash, you will lose all your changes since the last time you manually saved the file. You don’t need to select the Always Create Backup Copy check box. With AutoRecover and Time Machine, the bases are covered. The option is there only for backward compatibility.
Click OK when you’re finished. Rarely, Word might not automatically display the AutoRecover file for the document(s) you were working on the next time you open Word. In that case, do the following in Word to open the AutoRecover file. Choose File→Open from the menu bar. Type AutoRecover or type a keyword or phrase in the Spotlight Search box in the top-right corner of the Open dialog. Double-click the most recently saved AutoRecover file, or select the file and click Open. If you did a keyword or phrase search, use the Last Opened information to help you choose a likely file to open.
If the file you want is grayed-out, choose All Files in the Enable pop-up menu, which allows you to open any file type. You can also use Mac OS X Time Machine to recover any file that you’ve saved at least once.
When you use Word for Mac, it’s nearly impossible to lose more than a few minutes’ worth of work thanks to AutoRecover and Time Machine.