Is there any way to make MS Word XP save the file which is currently in work automatically every couple of minutes so it won't be lost when a windows update barges through or something else causes the file to close. I'm using Win 7 64bit.

I believe you will find that setting at
Tools > Options > Save tab
Something like:
"Save autorecovery info every ___ minutes"

Thanks Kimberly,

I lost something over twenty minutes of work and for an author that's a lot.

I have auto recovery set to save every minute but It doesn't seem to do it.

What I would like to have is the ability to have the file automatically saved every x minutes like WordPerfect does, but it seems MS didn't think that was a worthwhile feature. I don't think it would be hard to implement and it sure would have saved me a ton of frustration.

It has taken me over two hours and I still am only about half way back to where I was when the troll came by. It is almost impossible to reconstruct the flow of a narrative that you have written while the muse is with you after the muse moves along to the next scene.

Do not close Word.
Sorry to hear that you are frustrated. Microsoft apparently does think it is a worthwhile feature since they have included it in many many versions and continue to include it in the current version, 2010. It usually works quite well. I don't know why it isn't working for you.
Tools > Options > File Locations... see if you can find the save location.

Or you can try searching your hard drive for .asd

Thanks again Kimberly,

When I go to the location pointed to for recovery files there is nothing but an empty folder.

When I search for *.asd files I do indeed find several very old files and eureka! There is one fresh file. It is as if the software decided I was getting too close to catching up with it so it gave up and surrendered.

How does it store the recovery files? Are they stored on top of each other like WP does it's backup files? What triggers a recover save. Clearly it isn't time based since the file should have very nearly the current clock time if that were the case and the software was doing what is advertised so what does it do really?

Be sure to save your recovered file as a Word document (.doc file)!

An AutoRecover file is created or updated each time there are changes that have not been saved at the end of the time period.

If you save the file, Word deletes the AutoRecover one and doesn't make another until the time period is up again (for example, 10 minutes after the save, if it's set to 10 minutes).

If you have it set at 10 minutes, and click Save every 8 minutes, an Autorecovery file will not be generated.

When you opened Word, it should have alerted you that it had recovered a file. I suspect that if it didn't, perhaps it had something to do with Office XP on Windows 7? They are compatible, but perhaps not optimum? Just a guess.

Also, you might want to have a look at File > versions. You can set it to automatically save a version every _ minutes if I recall correctly. It isn't available in Office anymore, but it was back then. (be sure to eventually delete unused versions though)

Thanks again.

This is what I want to do since the recovery files aren't being picked up when I open Word. I can search for them and sure enough there is one there that conforms to the rules that you gave me, but I cannot open it so it isn't useful. Is there a known problem with the recovery process in Office XP?

It looks like the only option is to save on close there is no timed option. That is some help if it saves when Win update tromps through killing everything I have it set to notify me and let me tell it when to do the updates but it still rages through once in a while. Is there any way to turn it off entirely so I can go look for updates now and then like once a week or whenever instead of taking a chance that it will come along and destroy whatever I happen to be working on at the time that it in it's infinite wisdom decides that i have to have some update?

Word perfect stores the snapshots on top of each other so they don't fill up the hard drive. It seems like that's the sensible way to do it.

Thanks again.

By the way why do you have version 14 of Win 7 and mine is ver 10? I've let it do updates as recently as tor three days ago yet i'm 4 versions behind at least. Oh I see that's the Office ver.not Win7.