PLEASE HELP!!! OPENED AND EDITED WORD DOCUMENT FROM GMAIL. SAVED & CLOSED IT NOW I CAN'T FIND IT!!!?

Question

PLEASE HELP!!! OPENED AND EDITED WORD DOCUMENT FROM GMAIL. SAVED & CLOSED IT NOW I CAN'T FIND IT!!!?

Answer 1

Editing a document right out of an email is a dangerous practice. Often the file that gets opened in Word is a temporary one and disappears totally when Word closes, so Saves to it are useless (Save As's to a different file are OK, but it's often hard to remember to do that.)



It's usually better to save the file out of the email first, then open the saved file and work on it.



The good news is that the original copy is probably still attached to the email.



All that being said, there's a slim possibility your file still exists in your temp directory. (Thunderbird in particular seems to be doing this now -- or perhaps it's Word itself.)



In Windows XP:



C:\Documents and settings\your username\Local settings\temp



In Windows Vista:



C:\Users\your username\AppData\Local\temp



Don't be fooled by files that look almost like it: Word also creates some temporary files that are useless to you.



Good luck.

Answer 2

When you open a word attachment from gmail it goes into your "temporary internet files" folder. If you don't save it somewhere else (File/Save as...) then it stays there when you save it. You can find your "temporary internet files" in your personal profile folder - its buried quite deep - or go to tools>options in Internet Explorer and use the Settings button under Browsing History to get to the settings box and then click "view files". Good luck.

Answer 3

The best thing you can do, is do a Search and where it asks 'where to search ' make sure you go right back to just the C:/ drive so it will search the whole computer.

You can use wildcards (the * character) so if you don't know the full name of the document type the first few letters then the * character and it will look for everything beginning with those letters



Sorry if you know all this or have already tried it, but it is the best way to make sure every folder has been checked, if it finds nothing, try searching for *.doc which will find every document ending in .doc on the PC but it might be a long list



good luck

Answer 4

Oh no. You didn't do that did you. That's terrible. There's nothing you can do, I'm so sorry.

Answer 5

The file was store in the location of the Temporary Internet Files folder. The location of this folder depends on the version of Windows and whether or not you are using user profiles (login user name).



To be able to access this folder you will have to change the settings of Windows Explorer to show all kinds of files (including the protected system files). To do this, follow these steps:

• Start Windows Explorer (press Windows key + E or right-click the START button and choose EXPLORE)

• Click the ORGANIZE button (top-left corner) and then select FOLDER AND SEARCH OPTIONS. Select the VIEW tab.

• Under the ADVANCED SETTINGS - HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS:

HINT: Before doing any change, backup/write down your actual values to restore them afterwords.

- mark/select SHOW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS

- Unmark/deselect HIDE EXTENSIONS FOR KNOWN FILE TYPES

- Unmark/deselect HIDE PROTECTED OPERATING SYSTEMS FILES (RECOMMENDED)

• Click the OK button to save the changes and close all open windows.



Now, the file you are looking for could be under any name. Check all word files (*.doc or *.docx) to find the file and copy/move/save it to a new location.

HINT: Check only the files that correspond to the date when you worked with the file, example yesterday



Temporary Internet Files folder' Location:

C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\

or

C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\



WARNING/ADVICE: After you have done working with the Temporary Internet Files folder, restore the settings of Windows Explorer to their previous state (use the previous backup values).



HINT: To reclaim some disk space you can delete the temporary internet files manually or using:

• Windows' Disk Cleanup tool (START >> ALL PROGRAMS >> ACCESSORIES >> SYSTEM TOOLS)

• CCLEANER http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

• Internet Explorer (TOOLS >> INTERNET OPTIONS)