Frollocks

[jacey]

I just lost three scenes from the new ending of 'Empire of Dust' with a single careless click. All today's work, in fact. I thought I had Word set to save automatically every ten minutes... in fact I did... so WTF is it?

I hate bloody Microshaft. (Okay, it's my fault, but I still hate bloody Microshaft!)

Nuff said.

If anybody has a magic retrieval spell please let me know.

Comments

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Norton Utilies is a magic retrieval spell. It will find and un-delete files.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I think NU only undeletes 'deleted' files, but this file wasn't deleted, the file was closed without saving the additional work on it.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

As an alternative for writing, take a look at OpenOffice (freeware) http://openoffice.org

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Dan, thanks anyway, but we've had this conversation before on rasfc... I have a perfectly good alternative to Word in Lotus Smartsuite, which I adore. I'm not looking for yet another set of programmes. The whole point of using Word was to try and get myself into the habit since everyone else on the planet seems to use it.

If I give in and hurl Word at the wall I'll go back, with pleasure, to Lotus Word-Pro which does everything Word does, but more intuitively and for a minute fraction of the price (paid long ago).

I think trying to learn yet another word processing programme - however good - would be a last straw for this camel's back.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. :(

I have to admit that I don't trust the autosave so I just press Ctrl S (or click the Save button on the toolbar) every time I pause for a moment to think.

It is pretty difficult to lose stuff in Word these days. I know some people like to condemn it, but I find it a useful all-round work horse of a word processor that does everything I need for producing handouts etc as well as fiction writing.

As to retrieving the lost scenes, it depends on what you actually did:

- if you think you deleted the file, it will be in the recycle bin and therefore retreivable.

- if you saved an old version over the top of the new version, there is nothing you can do, though Word will have warned you with a message something on the lines of: "A file of this name already exists. Overwrite Yes/No?" (The safe answer is usually "Aaarrgh! No!!!")

- if it was a brand new file that you hadn't yet given a name to, it's very likely been saved with a default name taken from the first few words of the document, or possibly as Document 1.doc in the default location (usually My Documents unless you've set it to something different). Try searching for all files created today with a .doc file extension.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Or (having now looked at the date/time you posted!) search for all files created yesterday with a .doc extension.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I closed it down, thinking I had already saved what was there so I ignored the warning. Effectively I saved the old version on top of the new one. My fault.

I've rewritten one scene so far. I don't know whether it's as good, or better. It does the same thing, but it's a bit different.

The next scene I lost was a sex scene which I find difficult to write at the best of times, especially as it was a conflicted one.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I ignored the warning

*Utters little moan of despair*

Nooooo! You really can trust Word on this one. You should never see that warning about overwriting files -- unless you're naming a file for the first time and have just happened to choose one that already exists. In that case, click the cancel button, check what files you already have and choose a slightly different name for the currently open file. Chapter 3a or something.

If you're just saving an update, use Ctrl S or click on the Save button on the toolbar and it will just keep using the same name and location.

The other warning you shouldn't ever ignore is the "Do you want to save changes?" The answer is almost always "Yes".

Ahem...

Sorry about the lecture, I just slipped into teacher mode for a moment there.

Commiserations on the lost sex scene. I know how awkward they are. :(

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Yes, Miss. Sorry, Miss. I won't let it happen again, Miss.
:-)

it was Just One Of Those Things. In my defence I do daft stuff like that fairly rarely. The only other time I lost anything was several years ago... a complete chapter... when a hard drive on a very old laptop failed irrevocably.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Oh, God, yes! I think we've all done something stupid at one time or another. :) I lost almost a whole chapter once because I overwrote the file with a snippet of something else.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

What I do is to set up a new document, save it, _and then_ work. At least I try to - I've done the 'what was this where should it go' dance too often.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I'm very organised about where I save my files. I have subject-work directories rather than keeping things in the work directories designated for the programme. I can't understand people who just hit save and trust that the programme puts it somewhere sensible. That way lies madness.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Have you tried reopening word? If you didn't close the file down properly, it'll come up as 'recovered file' the next time you do - well, eight times out of ten, but it's worth a try.

I have to admit <whispers> that I like Word. Well, Word 2004/OSX; can't say anything about other versions, though I used to like Word 5, too. (6 was an abomination.)

Other than styled outlines, Word does everything I want it to do. I like its style handling, I like some of the options it offers (such as a double underline which I use a lot and some word processors just don't cater for), and I adore the comment feature which is a godsent for inline critting. Search-and-replace, replacing styles (two actions to reformat a mss *without destroying any special formatting I put into place*), skipping from found object to found object... I'm afraid that other than the outlines thing, Word does exactly what I need.

I hope you get your text back, though.

[bluehairsue.livejournal.com]

AAAAAh!!! I hate it when this happens. I thought I'd lost a whole day's NaNoWriMo (3000+ words) saved on a corrupt disk, but someone recovered it for me. I also thought I'd lost some files at one point but they were in the recycle bin (how did they get there??) and I restored them. I have utter and complete faith that if you did it once, you can do it again. So if the worst comes to the worst (which it sounds like it has), you can redo them.
Commiserations and best wishes. PS -- don't think I have managed to say this to you yet, but I like EMPIRE OF DUST as a title... Somewhat more catchy than ALIEN CRANFORD (aka The Novel-Length Thing), which someday I must think up a real title for...

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Thanks. 'Empire of Dust' is settling in well as a title. As soon as I've finished this bit I'll be sending it as promised - if that's still OK with you.

But 'Alien Cranford' has a certain ring to it too.