…you do the right thing.  If you’ve haven’t saved a document for half an hour, an hour, or even more, when the application crashes take advantage of AutoRecover.

Mac & Windows Users

Microsoft Word, Excel and even PowerPoint have an AutoSave feature that is turned on by default. Even when you forget, the application remembers to save your documents for you every 10 minutes. However, the data is not saved directly into your document. It is saved to a temporary AutoRecover document. If the application freezes, and you are forced to end the task without being able to save your document, you can recover the document up to the last save, and you will lose no more than 10 minutes of work. Here’s how:

• After the application quits abnormally, DO NOT reopen it by double clicking on ANY document file.
• Open Word, Excel or PowerPoint ONLY by double clicking on the application shortcut (in the Start Menu, on the Desktop, in the QuickLaunch toolbar, or on the Dock).
• When the application opens, it will display a list of all documents that were open at the time that it quit unexpectedly. These are the AutoRecover documents. Open the file from this list, and all your changes up to  the last AutoSave will be preserved. Simply save this AutoRecover document with the same filename to replace your previous version, or save it with a new name if you want to be sure you don’t overwrite the previous version.

Mac Users

If you forget, and open the original document before the application, you may still find a copy of the AutoRecover file on your hard drive. Look in the folder Documents>Microsoft User Data.  The file will be named "Autorecovery Save of ..."