[Ingrid]

In 2003 Word, which came installed on my computer, which has XP Home Edition,
I need to back up and record 100% of my Word documents, Outlook address book
and mail merge recipients. Can someone explain how this is accomplished?
This backup was suggested by Microsoft prior to doing an entire system backup
so that I can upgrade to Service Pack 3, from Service Pack 2 without fear of
loosing my information.

[Jay Freedman]

On Wed, 4 Feb 2009 14:41:09 -0800, Ingrid
wrote:

In 2003 Word, which came installed on my computer, which has XP Home Edition,
I need to back up and record 100% of my Word documents, Outlook address book
and mail merge recipients. Can someone explain how this is accomplished?
This backup was suggested by Microsoft prior to doing an entire system backup
so that I can upgrade to Service Pack 3, from Service Pack 2 without fear of
loosing my information.

The general idea of backing up files is to make a copy of them on some other
medium, so that no matter what happens on your hard disk, those files are safe.
The "other medium" can be another hard disk (such as an external drive), a CD-R
or DVD-R disk, a USB stick, or a server somewhere on a network or on the
Internet.

The software you use depends partly on where you're storing the backups. For a
hard disk or a USB stick, just use the Windows Explorer file manager to copy the
files from one place to the other. You may also be able to use it to burn a CD
or DVD, or you may want to use the software that came with the burner. If you
back up to an online service, they'll probably supply software for that.

For Word, you want to copy all files with extensions of .doc and .dot. If you're
like most people, all the .doc files will be in the My Documents folder. The
..dot files will be in a hidden folder at C:\Documents and Settings\your
name\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates. In order to see this folder, you
need to open the Tools Options dialog in Windows Explorer, click the View tab,
and select the option to show hidden files and folders.

The Outlook files are probably in another hidden folder, C:\Documents and
Settings\your name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
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