[Dean]

Well, that is what Suzanne assumed. Regardless, what I meant is that, if I
had looked for these files before re-opening WORD, perhaps I could have
found something?

Or is that wrong?


"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
I thought we had decided it was the update tool that had closed Word? Your
better plan is to get into the habit of saving documents frequently. Press
CTRL+S every time you pause for breath - and have the backup option set in
tools options save.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


Dean wrote:
Thanks, I will read that linked document soon. I guess if I had not
restarted WORD, I might have had a chance to find something - right?

Dean

"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
Word XP works in much the same way with respect to updates. It will
warn (by means of that icon in the systray) that they are available
and then you can choose whether to download them or not.

The OP may want to see
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm also.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:
The ~$lename.doc file is the "owner" file (see "Description of how
Word creates temporary files" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211632). It won't help you at
all; it just locks the document for editing by any other user. If
you see ~$xxxwrl.tmp files, then they may be useful, as they are
created every time you save (but if you didn't save, you won't have
any). I have Windows (2000--it may be different in XP) set to notify,
and
it tells me when updates are available. I can then choose to
download them (as in fact I did yesterday), and then it tells me
again when they're ready to be installed (I haven't gotten this
notification yet--haven't yet figured out why it takes longer to
download updates over DSL, which is always on then it did during
the few unused cycles of dialup). In both cases, I don't get the
notice till I click on the icon in the Systray.

Once I've been notified that they're ready to install, I can choose
not to install them, and I think there's a Later button that perhaps
delays till the next day, but I'm not sure about that. My experience
with the Later button wrt restarting after the install is that it
keeps prompting again every few minutes until you're ready to throw
in the towel. I usually tell it Later and then restart manually
because my earlier experience with saying, "Yes, restart my computer
now" was that it went off into Neverneverland and required a hard
shutdown (turning off the power button) to get out of the loop.


"Dean" wrote in message
...
Ouch, but thank you. I thought that windows usually warned me that
it was going to install the updates, but I guess, if you're not
there to tell it to wait, sooner or later, it goes forward. Is it
Ok to let it automatically download them but not install them
without permission - or does it still install them, in that mode,
if you are away from your computer too long?

What are these little hushed tilde (~filename.doc) things that show
up on a search, with more recent dates/times? Are they of any use?

Thanks!
Dean

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
I fear you have misunderstood the purpose of "background" saves.
This setting is relevant only when you save manually. See
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/general/AutomaticSave.htm.

You have learned the folly of leaving an unsaved document open
unattended. If your computer is set to allow entirely automatic
updates (Control Panel

Automatic Updates), you have given Windows permission to shut down
any running programs (without saving open files) in order to
restart the computer when necessary after installing updates. If
you have any control over the process, you would be wise to set
Automatic Updates to notify instead; this gives you control of the
process: you can decide when (or whether) to download the updates,
when (or whether) to install them, and when to restart the
computer after installing.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Dean" wrote in message
...
Forgive me once more, as I have posted this on other newsgroups
that have no
activity whatsoever since earlier yesterday, so it looks like this
is the place to be seen! Even though my computer may be
overloaded and should be rebooted, I am afraid to shut it down,
lest I lose what temporary background-save fragments I need to
recover what I seem to have lost - that
is why I have this sense of urgency. Here is what I posted
elsewhere yesterday, please help! :

I was working on a few MS Word documents today, documents that I
update daily and, I took a couple of hours off and when I came
back, MS Word was closed and, when I reopened Word, the documents
had none of the changes I had made today.

My settings are to allow "background saves" and to do autorecover
every 10 minutes. When, I did a search for Word docs modified in
the last day, my files (which I update and resave daily) showed
up, but none of them had any
updates I've done in the last 24 hours in them, even though I
think they showed today's date (not sure on that). Some of the
temporary hushed files
(same name with a tilde in front) seem to show up, but if you open
them by themselves, it's garbage. Now, I did the search again, 15
minutes later, and far fewer files show up.

I don't understand this. Can someone tell me the best way to
integrate whatever background saved files I have, in order to try
to resurrect what I
did today?

Thanks so much, Dean