Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Saving Your Work Automatically.
We've all done it. You're working along for several hours on a document, when suddenly the power goes out. Or you kick the reset button on your computer, or your three-year-old pulls the power cord out of the wall. The list goes on, but the bottom line is that you lost the past couple of hours of work. Many things spring to mind at a time like this. Most of them can't be printed in a nice, family-oriented newsletter like this. But hopefully you learned a lesson when this happened to you.
Word allows you to protect yourself by automatically saving your work for you. To set the automatic saving feature, follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Save tab of the Options dialog box.
When designating an AutoSave frequency, you should probably not select a time under 10 minutes. More frequent saves can waste time and become counterproductive.
You should also note that AutoSave does not really save your file. What it does is to save information that Word can use to try to recover your file if Word stops unexpectedly.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1009) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Saving Your Work Automatically.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: 
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