{"id":29631,"date":"2012-10-13T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T10:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/?p=29631"},"modified":"2025-07-02T01:43:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:43:26","slug":"how-to-prevent-losing-your-work-in-microsoft-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-prevent-losing-your-work-in-microsoft-word\/","title":{"rendered":"How to prevent losing your work in Microsoft Word"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/how-to-back-up-your-microsoft-word-docs-more-effectively\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-29632\" title=\"Microsoft Word\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/10-12-2012-1-49-35-PM.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"149\" \/><\/a>Imagine this scenario: you\u2019ve been slaving away all afternoon on an important document in <a title=\"Microsoft Word\" href=\"http:\/\/microsoft-word.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Microsoft Word<\/strong><\/a>. Unexpectedly, the program crashes, or worse, you close out and forget to save one last time.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t panic. Microsoft Word actually backs up your work regularly to prevent losing your document. The auto-save interval is usually set to automatically save your work every 10 minutes. How much of your hard work would be lost in that time span though? My guess is it\u2019d be more than you\u2019d like.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, there\u2019s a simple way to <strong>tweak the auto-save settings in Word and set it to back up your documents more frequently<\/strong>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Tweak your auto-save settings<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This is a seriously simple process. Just click on the <strong>File<\/strong> button on the top of the Microsoft Word interface, then choose <strong>Options<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-29633\" title=\"Microsoft Word's File menu\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/MicrosoftWord1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/MicrosoftWord1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/MicrosoftWord1-300x189.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Click on the <strong>Save<\/strong> tab. Two lines down, you\u2019ll see a \u201cSave AutoRecover information every XX minutes\u201d option with a drop down menu that lets you choose the number of minutes between auto-saves. Pick whatever time frame you think would be most beneficial to you, then click <strong>OK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-29634\" title=\"Choose the number of minutes between each auto-save\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/MicrosoftWord2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/MicrosoftWord2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/MicrosoftWord2-300x118.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s really all you need to do to prevent losing your hard work.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Bonus tip: reverting to a previously saved version of the same document<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The auto-save feature is good for ensuring timely and automatic saves of your documents but what if you deleted a document you realize you actually wanted to keep?<\/p>\n<p>You can very easily revert to a previous version of your document with Microsoft Word 2010. As long as you don&#8217;t actually close the document you&#8217;re working on, Word will keep track of every version it auto-saves.<\/p>\n<p>You can access these different versions from the <strong>File<\/strong> menu under the Info tab. At the very bottom of the center pane, you&#8217;ll see a <strong>Versions<\/strong> section. From there, you can open older auto-saved versions in one simple click.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-29635\" title=\"Choose the auto-saved version you want to view\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/MicrosoftWord4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"337\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/MicrosoftWord4.jpg 337w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/MicrosoftWord4-300x184.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 337px) 100vw, 337px\" \/>These two easy tips will save you considerable time and frustration when Word or your computer crashes. <strong>Have you ever lost an important Word document? What steps did you take to back it up?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine this scenario: you\u2019ve been slaving away all afternoon on an important document in Microsoft Word. Unexpectedly, the program crashes, or worse, you close out and forget to save one last time. Don\u2019t panic. Microsoft Word actually backs up your work regularly to prevent losing your document. The auto-save interval is usually set to automatically &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-prevent-losing-your-work-in-microsoft-word\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How to prevent losing your work in Microsoft Word&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2028,"featured_media":29633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[2441],"tags":[3221],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-29631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionmicrosoft-word"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333595,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29631\/revisions\/333595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29631"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=29631"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=29631"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=29631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}