Last night, I opened a document in Word 2003 by selecting the attachement
icon in Outlook Express 6. I worked on the document for 5+ hours, cliked
"save" several times during the night, but never "save as," which would have
changed the directory. Now I cannot find the file, even after searching for
lost Word documents as generic support page suggested. I'm afraid that the
file was part of a temp dir that has been removed. Can anyone please help
ASAP?

You have correctly assessed the situation. Quite aside from the danger of
opening attachments directly (the risk of macro viruses and other baddies),
you run the risk of losing your work because the document you open and
"save" is saved in a temp folder and deleted when you close Word. Always
Save As from the email, then open the document from the saved location.

--
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.

"Why Me?" Why wrote in message
...
Last night, I opened a document in Word 2003 by selecting the attachement
icon in Outlook Express 6. I worked on the document for 5+ hours, cliked
"save" several times during the night, but never "save as," which would
have
changed the directory. Now I cannot find the file, even after searching
for
lost Word documents as generic support page suggested. I'm afraid that
the
file was part of a temp dir that has been removed. Can anyone please help
ASAP?

Why:
I had this same thing happen to me last night that is why I am searching
back posts. I opened an attachment from OE and worked in in for several
hours, saving along the way. When I closed it and reopened it I couldn't find
it. All searches revealed nothing. I finally went back into the original
attachment, clicked on Save As and it showed me where it had saved the
document. I can't remember the exact file name because I am at work now, but
it was a temporary file under Documents and Settings, then under Local
Settings. The file had an alpha-numberic name, i.e. IVXVN456. I found the
file in there along with many other files I was not aware of. I know this is
kind of late notice, but I hope it helps someone in the future.

"Why Me?" wrote:

Last night, I opened a document in Word 2003 by selecting the attachement
icon in Outlook Express 6. I worked on the document for 5+ hours, cliked
"save" several times during the night, but never "save as," which would have
changed the directory. Now I cannot find the file, even after searching for
lost Word documents as generic support page suggested. I'm afraid that the
file was part of a temp dir that has been removed. Can anyone please help
ASAP?