I hate Microsoft word.

[katster]

I was writing my final report in word. I was doing pretty good. Had fifteen pages, was cruising towards *done* and...well...I hate word. Here's what happened.

Since this is a final report, it's dependent on a lot of other things I was doing. They're all saved with the class number in front, so I can find them easily. Since I'm getting close to the end, I decide, well, I don't need a couple of the other documents open anymore. I went to close them.
I hit the wrong button [The big red X in word, not the little X to close the document.) I compounded my error when it asked 'Would you like to save 208 Final Report', I thought it was asking about a different document (I had just been tinkering and was attempting to close '208 Progress Report') and hit no before I realized which document it was asking me about.

So three or four hours of work gone because I was an idiot.

Did I mention it's due tomorrow?

Will somebody please shoot me now and put me out of my misery?

Comments

"Will somebody please shoot me now and put me out of my misery?"

[joshbrown.livejournal.com]

1) Sorry, can't help you there. I don't have a gun.
2) Shmuel does. Maybe he will help. He probably won't, though. If you check out his journal for the last couple of days, he is apparently too depressed to do much other than shoot himself. This is despite my attempts at cheering him up. I will try and work on him some more.
3) Cheer up. It can't be that bad. Infuriating, yes. But not suicidally so. And take it from someone who knows - I am retaking the CCNA exam (the one I failed a week ago on Friday) tomorrow.

Re: "Will somebody please shoot me now and put me out of my misery?"

[katster.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the laugh.

The problem is, the schoolwork is, unfortunately, a way I define myself, and so right now it looks a lot like the end of the world. I know on an intellectual level it isn't, but I don't really feel up to making the distinction right now. :P

-kat

Re: "Will somebody please shoot me now and put me out of my misery?"

[joshbrown.livejournal.com]

Sorry about to hear that. Your work is in no way a reflection of who you are or what your capable of. And again, it's something I know about - the reason I don't have a university degree is that I failed calculus too many times and finally got fed up and dropped out. And it wasn't that I didn't understand the mathematics, it was that I don't do well on tests and don't do rote memorization very well. And that was what was required of me to pass that course.
And then I had the professor for database management) who told a friend of mine that there was no connection between any of the following:
1) What the professor said during the lecture
2) What the student understood from the lecture
3) What was asked on the test
4) What the student answered on the test
5) What the correct answer was for the question on the test
6) What the student's grade was on the test
So, I learned that grades and tests don't reflect on you at all, that they only reflect what the professor wants to hear.
And it's important to internalize this. The world of acadamia is NOT student-friendly and you should never think that grades say anything about you (other than that you are smart, which we know already)
And the most important thing to remember is that regardless of your grades, WE WILL LIKE YOU! Okay, it may not seem like much that people who you may never will meet face to face say this, but it's important that you know it.
So, CHEER UP ALREADY!

[netdancer.livejournal.com]

Word autosaves. You may have all your work but the bit since the last autosave.

******
Subject: Word - Safety Tips
Keywords: word, tips

Word Safety Tips

Word has two systems to protect you against the accidental loss of your work:
- Always Keep Backup
- Autosave every 10 minutes

Of course - saving your work often also helps.

Always Keep Backup Feature

When you save your document - this system renames the existing copy of your document (yourdoc.doc)...
- Word 6 - to 'yourdoc.bak'.
- Word 97 - backup copy of yourdoc.wbk.
...before saving the current version (as yourdoc.doc).

Recovering Backup File

If for any reason you can't open your document (it happens) or you open a document and it freezes, do the following:
1. get out of the frozen document by whatever means necessary & (Win
95/98)close down Windows.
2. (Win 95/98)restart Windows & restart Word.
3. get Word's 'open dialog' looking at the same directory as the dud file.
4. drop the 'Files of type' list and select 'All Files(*.*)' option - see all files including backups.
5. click on the backup file and click on 'Open' button.

Word will then open a slightly out of date copy of your document.
1. re-type the missing text (!)
2. click 'File' menu then 'Save As' option and give it a new name - it is a good idea not to use the same name as the broken file as it might be stored on a broken section of disk.

Autosave Feature

With 'Autosave' switched on, Word saves a copy of your document to a separate file every ten minutes (or however often you specify).

Using Autosave
If your computer freezes & you have to switch the power off - Word will load the Autosave file the next time you run Word. The 'recovered' document will not have the same name as the original so you will have to save & name it again.

[katster.livejournal.com]

Right. But I guess Word cleans up the autosaves when you make the mistake I did (because that's the first thing I did) and I didn't have backup on. It's not set up to do backups automagically.

It's gone.

The only hope I have now is explaning it to my instructors and hoping they'll be merciful.

-kat

[scattymatty.livejournal.com]

autosave?

[netdancer.livejournal.com]

Yep. The default for Autosave is 'on', I think. So all is not lost if you crash your machine or something.

[lirazel.livejournal.com]

Except that most of us who use Word a lot turn Autosave off, as it can eat memory like all the inhabitants of a sow palace, and interrupts one all the time when working.

Then again, I started using Word when the maximum file size was 30 K. The motto then and now is, Save Early And Often. I've gotten in the habit of saving at the end of justabout every paragraph, and it still takes up less room than Autosaves.

But alas, this does not help Kat. And I have neither a gun to lend nor a sword that she can fall upon.

[katster.livejournal.com]

Even with autosave on, it didn't help the katster. Word cleans itself up quite nicely after the mistake I made. I just about killed it for its effeciency.

And as for the Saving Early and Often...I just got in enough of a groove that I wasn't even thinking about it. :P I don't use word as often as I should, and so I forget the autosave rule.

Yeah. I'm throwing myself upon the mercy of my instructors. It's not a wonderful morning.

-kat

[katster.livejournal.com]

Word cleans up the autosave files when you make a mistake like mine. The backup files, though, that are mentioned in another answer would have saved me...but woe! that is not on by default in Microsoft Word!

-kat

[ladycalliope.livejournal.com]

I did that once with a lab write-up. Have you tried something like Norton Utilities?

Or are you now typing madly?

[katster.livejournal.com]

Threw myself on the mercy of the professors.

They gave me until Wednesday morning, which gives me some relief. Not as much as I'd like, mind you, but enough.

-kat