Fanfic Helpdesk: Technical and Scientific Help for Writers

[Feast of the Muse]

Hehehe. Hi!!


ETA: I put a new fic up last night. Finally back into the SG swing of things.

[Whytewytch]

I have to admit as one who puts keyboards in the dishwasher, it isn't unusual to have sprinklers in room full of computers. However, what comes out is not always water!

This sounds like it is done routinely. Is this on purpose? And if so, which are you punishing--the keyboards or the dishwasher? Good to see you, BTW. Did you have fun at the con?

[Feast of the Muse]

Hey WhyteWytch!

This sounds like it is done routinely. Is this on purpose? And if so, which are you punishing--the keyboards or the dishwasher? Good to see you, BTW. Did you have fun at the con?

Mind you I've only ever done it with Mac keyboards. Pop the keys off and put if face down in the top rack, and make sure the heated drying is off. They come out squeaky clean, no more sticky keys! (Of course you put the keys in a bowl with dish soap and give them love too.) As long as it is totally dry before you try to use it again, you're golden.

As a matter of fact the Con was both amazing and disappointing. Skydiver has advised that not getting one's hopes up is the best way to approach a Con, and I'm thinking she's right. The big names that are there? Whatever. Fellow con goers? Awesomesauce!!!

[Whytewytch]

I know this isn't exactly technical help for the story, but this could loosely fall under the heading & I'm posting it where I can to get help:

Techies! Help, please! I downloaded my doc from my beta (we use hotmail but not the online support--her computer doesn't play well with it). I re-wrote an entire lovely scene, was saving and everything. Closed out the computer yesterday to drag it to the office and now the chap with the re-write is GONE! Can't find it in downloads or anything. I am not pleased ATM. Please tell me I don't have to re-write. It was good!

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Whytewytch, where does your computer save temporary files? That is, if you're working on something and it does an auto-backup, where does it go? Second, if you reopen the original document and click "save as" instead of "save", what path does it give you? Whatever the result, have you checked that folder?

What about hidden folders? If you use the same machine at/for work, could there be hidden folders?

Seaboe

[Whytewytch]

I have no idea on either of those things, Seaboe. I am not exactly tech savvy. Any idea where I'd look for temp files? I even searched under all Word docs. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Skydiver]

which version of word do you have?
have you looked in your 'recent documents' to see if it's there?
could you have saved it in a different place?
could you have dragged it to a desktop but accidentally opened the version on your flash drive and edited that one?
as to where it saves stuff, depending on your version of word, go to file and options and save and see where the autosave location is and see what's there.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

To expand a bit on what Skydiver said...

Instead of just hitting the disk icon to save, use the menu and go to "save as" Note where it's going--you can see that at the top of the window. If you're willing to pm me your email address, I can send you screen caps that show what I mean.

When you do a "save as" it shows you where the default save is happening.

Seaboe

[Whytewytch]

Thanks for the advice and the help, everyone! However, I think this is what happened, an answer given by another friend on another thread:

Here is my understanding of why ... when you open a document from your email program and then save it (with something like Ctrl-S, i.e. not choosing Save As) it goes to the same location your computer opens the document into. This is going to be some kind of local or temporary location for things the computer needs in the short term that it gets rid of once an application or the computer is shut down. So while it looks like you've saved it (which you have!) once you shut down you can't find it - because it saved to a temporary location that no longer exists/is no longer accessible. It's the difference between RAM and hard drive memory. RAM is used by the computer to basically run things - that's why having lots is great and not having much makes your computer sluggish.

The version of Word I have is pretty new, don't know the number, but it doesn't actually have the File, Edit, etc across the top, so you cannot choose "Save as". All it gives is the icon--if it's an unnamed doc, it automatically chooses "Save as" and if the doc has a name, it just saves it. If the above explanation is correct, there's no retrieving it, since I turned the laptop off for transport to the office. Will PM you, Seaboe, on the off chance that I stand a snowball's chance in Hades of retrieving it. If what you have doesn't work, I'm just gonna forget about it--I've already re-written some of the scene, but it would be great to blend the two versions and come out with something even better.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Whytewytch, I sent you some screen caps. And there's something wrong with the display on your copy of Word. I have Word 2010 at home, Word 2007 at work and work with people who have Word 2003. They all have file menus and they all let you save as (which is how you rename a document). The trick is that on Windows 2007 they don't call it a file menu, and they hide it. It is the big round button at the top left of your program.

You'll need to check your options and reset the auto-recover location to a non-temporary folder. I sent you a couple of screen caps of Word 2010. I'll try to get an innocuous screen cap of Word 2007 at work so you can see what that looks like. Then you'll know what version you have.

Seaboe

[fems]

Yeah, it took me two weeks before I accidentally clicked on the icon button and realized that it was actually a menu! I have 2007, by the way in case you need screen caps and Seaboe can't get them.

It may also depends on what kind of operating system you use or the type of browser; I have windows 7 and thus everything I download is automatically saved in my standard Downloads folder (unless I change it in my internet browser). I don't know where stuff like from emails via Outlook etc is saved since I don't use such a program and prefer to use gmail instead.

[SF_and_Coffee]

WW, all versions of Word have the File, Edit, etc. It just sounds like you have your toolbars all turned off and need to turn them on. In Word, if you go to Help and About, you can find out which version it is. I have Word 2010, which it sounds like you may have, and the menu functions are a bit funky in that.

But I'm pretty sure your friend is wrong about the document only having been saved in a temporary file or location. It almost has to be on your hard drive as well. If you do a Search for all the .doc and .docx files and then order them by date, it should turn up in the most recent documents.

Also, if you're only looking for the downloaded chapter, and you hadn't changed it since you got it from your beta, then you should be able to go back into the email and simply download it again. Unless you've gone and deleted that email and document from Hotmail, it should still be sitting on Hotmail's server.

[fems]

I interpreted Whytewytch's problem as having rewritten and saved a beta'ed document downloaded from an email (from the beta). So, the document with comments could be downloaded from the email, but all the changes made afterwards are gone unless she can get her document back/restored.

[Whytewytch]

I interpreted Whytewytch's problem as having rewritten and saved a beta'ed document downloaded from an email (from the beta). So, the document with comments could be downloaded from the email, but all the changes made afterwards are gone unless she can get her document back/restored.

That's exactly the issue!

Whytewytch, I sent you some screen caps. And there's something wrong with the display on your copy of Word. I have Word 2010 at home, Word 2007 at work and work with people who have Word 2003. They all have file menus and they all let you save as (which is how you rename a document). The trick is that on Windows 2007 they don't call it a file menu, and they hide it. It is the big round button at the top left of your program.

You'll need to check your options and reset the auto-recover location to a non-temporary folder. I sent you a couple of screen caps of Word 2010. I'll try to get an innocuous screen cap of Word 2007 at work so you can see what that looks like. Then you'll know what version you have.

Seaboe

OMG! Thanks you! I just thought it was a pretty little decoration to tell the difference between that version and earlier ones. So, yeah, I guess it's 2010. Will check my email. Thanks, all!

[fems]

If you click on the icon and go to "options" and look under "save" you see the location for auto recovery files, have you checked that to see if it automatically saved your (edited) document?