How to Open a Recent Unsaved Word Document

Microsoft Word 2010 includes an "AutoRecovery" option that minimizes the risk of losing data when a file closes without saving. This option saves documents to a special temporary folder at regular intervals, such as every 10 minutes. You can then use Word 2010's "Recover Unsaved Documents" command to recover an unsaved document from this temporary folder.

Instructions

Enable AutoRecovery

1. Open Word. Click the "File" tab.

2. Click "Options" in the "Help" section. Click "Save" to open the "Save Documents" section.

3. Select the "Save AutoRecover information every X minutes" option. Type the interval, in minutes, at which you want Word to automatically save documents into the text box.

4. Select the "Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving" option. Click "OK."

Recover Unsaved Documents

1. Open Word. Click the "File" tab on the Ribbon. A list appears on the left.

2. Click "Info" to open a list of command buttons. Click the down-arrow next to "Manage Versions."

3. Click "Recover Unsaved Documents." A dialog window with a list of unsaved documents opens. Click the unsaved Word file you want to recover.

4. Click "Open" to open the document appears. A yellow band labelled "Recovered Unsaved File" and a "Save As" button appear under the Ribbon.

5. Click "Save As" to open the save dialog window. Type a file name into the "File name" text box. Navigate to the location in which you want to save the recovered file.

6. Click "Save" to save the file.

Tips & Warnings

• Save documents frequently by pressing "Ctrl" and "S" simultaneously.

References

• Microsoft Office: Recover Earlier Versions of a File in Office 2010

Resources

• Microsoft Office: Use the Document Recovery Task Pane to Recover Your Files