Autorecover (Excel 2003)

[Melanie]

I have a user who needs help with autorecover. She worked on a spreadsheet on May 1 but does not know if she saved it. I am not sure how to reply to her.
"She writes..FYI I have a 10 minute interval in auto recover. That is what I don't understand. It should have save my document every 10 minutes but yet the file is dated 4/28/06 4:29 p.m. Maybe I'm not reading this right? It automatically makes a recovery file every 10 minutes. Is this file only available for abnormal terminations? I thought it meant it saved it every 10 minutes."

[BAN]

I think your user is confusing Autorecover with AutoSave.

From the MS Support site:

AutoSave
Microsoft Excel 97 and Microsoft Excel 2000 include an AutoSave feature. You can customize this feature to automatically save your file at set intervals of time. The AutoSave feature does not make a backup copy of your file. Therefore, it does not help protect against file corruption. Instead, it helps protect your data if Microsoft Excel unexpectedly quits. For example, it helps protect your data if your computer unexpectedly loses power.


AutoRecover
In Microsoft Excel 2002 and in Microsoft Office Excel 2003, the AutoSave feature has been replaced with the AutoRecover feature. The AutoRecover feature is similar to the AutoSave feature because it saves the file at set time intervals. However, it is different from the AutoSave feature in that instead of saving the file itself, the AutoRecover feature saves a copy of the file to a specified location.


When AutoRecover Files Are Deleted
To keep from filling up your AutoRecover location with unneeded files, AutoRecover files are automatically deleted in the following situations: