Ctrl+S vs Auto Save

[Ms Diva]

I was suggesting to one co-worker who lost his document that he should get in
the habit of using Ctrl+S frequently. Another associate chimed in that the
AutoSave feature accomplished the same thing. I disagree so am writing to you
for your opinion. Should users rely on AutoSave or frequent saving manually?

Thanks

 

[garfield-n-odie]

No, AutoSave is not the same as pressing Ctrl+S or File|Save. See
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/AutomaticSave.htm for more info.

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day Ms Diva,

Word used to have an "AutoSave" facility which did NOT
AutoSave, but saved the current Edit State as a Recovery
File. If Word was terminated abnormally, one could recover
that Edit State. The original file was therefore untouched
unless the User explicitly executed File Save (CTRL-S)

Then Microsoft introduced an Excel "AutoSave" addin that
did precisely that - it executed a File Save on behalf of the
User. The original file was overwritten.

The Word feature, although substantially unchanged, was
renamed "AutoRecover" and works exactly as before. Since
the "AutoRecover" is set up for (say) every 10 min, if there
is a System failure/crash, the greatest loss of work wil be 10
minutes worth.

In Summary:
File>Save saves the work and overwrites the original
document.
"AutoRecover" periodically saves the Edit State in a
Recovery file.

If Word terminates normally, the Recovery file(s) are
deleted. If Word terminates abnormally, the User is
offered a choice of the Recovered Edit or the original
document.