Help! related to word!!

I was working in word today, & did not, I repeat did not save anything I was working on. But---------------after going back into word --Document 2 is appearing at the top of the page??
I must have done something for Document 2 to appear, but what happened to Document 1 ???? I have no idea how to locate what I did or to try & resolve this problem??
Hoping someone out there can understand what happened, & help me over this one.
Thanks all,
Lucy
P.S. I am operating Windows XP with word 2002
Thanks again

 

If you just closed Document 1 without exiting Word that will happen, it's normal.

If you closed Word and went back in and that's what showed up, it's possible that Windows didn't close Word completely.

If this continues to show up that way, even after a reboot then there is something wrong somewhere and you have a couple of choices. You can run Detect and Repair (located in the Help drop down table) or you can find and delete the normal.dot file, reboot and go into Word, the normal.dot file will automatically be recreated.

 

KevinSaul:
Thanks for the reply back. When I rebooted, word came back as normal with Document 1 appearing. But----------a file appeared on the task pane, a normal.dot file with a sqiggley & $ sign ahead of normal.dot. Are you saying I can delete this file without doing any damage???? All I would have to do is bring up the file, right click & delete?? It it was created by something I did, deleting this file will automatically be recreated???
Will leave it there, as I do not want to make another error.
Thanks again,
Lucy

 

You can safely delete that file. It's probably an autosave file (do you have that turned on)? They are supposed to be automatically deleted when you close the file you're working on but sometimes they're not.

 

md2lgyk:

Would that be the same as auto format???
It is checked, so I don't know exactly how this works within "Word ".
Will have to explore this option & what exactly it does.
Thanks for the reply back,
Lucy

 

md2lgykZ:

After poking around word, I now know that autoformat is not the same as autosave. Where do I find this option within word??
Also when I put word into normal view, there is appearing a pane on the left hand side which was never there before???
It does not appear when in other view options, but this has got me puzzled & I don't know how to get rid of it.
I am only just starting to learn "Word" & finally realize there is so much you can do, but being a newbie to all of this, it can be very confusing to a beginner.

Maybe you will have some answere to these new developments??
Thanks again,
Lucy

 

The pane on the side in normal view is probably a toolbar. If you click on View and go to Toolbars you can see which ones are selected.

The autosave can be found under Tools then Options, click on the Save tab and it says Save Autorecover info every:, just uncheck that box.

While you're in there you might want to look around at some of the options available to you and come back to us with any questions.

 

Thanks KevinSaul:
Did find the saveauto info every box, & unchecked it.
I'm still wondering if the reviewing tool was the one that was appearing on the left side of the normal view page. It was vertical about 3" wide. I just arrowed it out of the way. I hope this was OK. Also I have a learning disc on word, & was going over the task pane which appears on the right hand side. I know that you can get rid of this pane if you want to, but it also said you can move it around. I did just that, & now when I put it back, it doesn't look quite the same. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKK!!!
I need a six month course on "Word" alone, as this is a very extensive & complicated program.
Thanks again KevinSaul, appreciate your reply back.
I will certainly be back, the next time I run into trouble.
Lucy

 

Glad you solved your problem. Yes, Word is quite complicated and imposing, especially when it always wants to do things seemingly "by itself." The first thing I did once I figured out the basics of the program was to shut off every automatic feature I could find. Many of the documents I work with have multiple graphics, tables, etc. and the files are quite large (sometimes 30-50 MB). Every time Autosave kicked in I had to sit and wait 4-5 minutes while it saved.

 

Meant to put this in my last post. An excellent site for Word help:

http://www.uwec.edu/help/index.htm

 

md2lgyk:
Thanks for the help site.
Lucy