I'm hopping mad.

[Aggers]

I had a large document on my laptop, listing every CD in my collection.

This afternoon I was updating it by adding recent purchases when suddenly it all disappeard from the screen
and I've been unable to retrieve it. I can only think that I have done something stupid. One of my failings is
that sometimes I press the Ctrl key instead of the shift key when typing a capital letter, and, as you will know,
that can trigger all sorts of things. Why the hell do they put those two keys next to each other? I've even thought
of putting a cover over the Ctrl key.

I've looked in the Recycle Bin but it isn't there. The odd thing is that when I click on the file title on my list of files
I just get a blank page, although the list of files shows that it has a considerable size.

Any comments?

[Diflower]

Try doing a search for it Aggers?

[Workingman]

Aggers, I am a bit confused.

When you say that it all disappeared do you mean that the word processor closed or was it that you appeared to get a new blank document?

You also say that a R click on the file title shows that it has a fair size but that when you open it it is blank. When it is opened what is the status bar telling you about the number of pages, words and so on?

Which office suite are you using? If it is either OpenOffice or LibreOffice the default save paths - unless you change them with Save As - are C:\Users\Your Name\Documents and C:\Users\Your Name\AppData\LibreOffice\4\user\backup

If you navigate to those places you might find an auto-saved copy.

[Aggers]

It just changed to a blank document. I didn't notice what it said on the status bar.

But it's alright now, Frank.

I did a bit of delving and found something to click that said "Restore previous version". I clicked it and, hey presto, it re-appeared.

It was minus the bit of work I had imputted today, but that's trivial.

I am relieved.

Thanks, all the same.

[Workingman]

"Restore previous version".

It is a nifty little rescue remedy offered by W7 if all else fails and so long as system restore is working. I am glad it worked for you John.

However, a much safer bet is to make sure auto-save and backup are turned on and with a timer that is not too long for the loss of a lot of work or too short to be a pain... Five to seven mins I find to be not bad.