The last nail in the coffin

[skippi90]

I was working on work for college when all of a sudden, MS Word crashes and reduces my documents that were open to txt files full of un-needed characters.

Almost 1 month's worth of hard work, GONE.

I was still using Microsoft products due to their use in my course but now, I just can't bring myself to use such an unstable piece of ****. I am now Linux only.


Now for night after night with no sleep to get this work done in Open Office and handed in on time.:(

[dca]

Regardless of OS used, you still need a b/u solution in place. Some places set-up a mass samba server you can migrate your files to every day or week. I've seen some businesses add an extra HDD that is pre-imagined the same as the master drive once all proprietary software added before user actually gets it and a batch file runs every night copying the data files that have changed to the secondary drive...

It's not a good feeling losing all that data... Even sitting in front of the workstation for a solid twenty-five minutes after that saying: ***k you ***k you *** you doesn't help...

[popch]

As dca already pointed out, you should save your work often and early, and you also should backup your work to different media every so often.

Also, you should familiarize yourself with the products you use when you entrust to them work which is essential to you, your career or your wellbeing.

For instance, MS Word makes backup copies of your document if you let it do that. You can find those even after a serious crash, and chances are that they remain usable.

Even if they are not usable, the contain all keystrokes of your work (i.e. the text) which you can often recover. Just scroll down the document with the unwanted gibberish. Chances are that there are even several versions of your text in the same document, depending on how you let Word backup or save your work.

So when MS Word crashes on you (which it does from time to time), if you keep a cool head, you might recover much of your work.

And as already has been said, chances are much better if you are prepared.

[tehet]

As dca already pointed out, you should save your work often and early
No. MS Word is extremely crash-happy. It's abnormal and unacceptable and its use should be avoided.

[LaRoza]

No. MS Word is extremely crash-happy. It's abnormal and unacceptable and its use should be avoided.

All the more reason to back up.

[skippi90]

Or as I've decided to do - use Open Office.

The files that MS Word saved are unusable.

[Black Mage]

Or as I've decided to do - use Open Office.

The files that MS Word saved are unusable.


The only thing that keeps me from using Open Office is the compatability problems with Microsoft 2007, which my college uses a lot. Besides that, Open Office all the way.

[MONODA]

you should set open office to save your work every 2 minutes or so and you should also make it always make a backup file (you can recover these from /home/User/.openoffice) since I have had OOo crash on me several times (especially calc and impress) but never lost that much work:)

[Polygon]

i noticed that open office has the option of creating back up files, so i might look into that.

but yeah, backing up important documents like whatever you were working on for a month is a must. Even backing up to a flash drive every night would suffice.

[skippi90]

I had them on a USB pen but those files were deleted too which was unusual.

[tehet]

All the more reason to back up.
Well, obviously its a good idea to save and bu often, especially when using MS Word because its such an unstable piece of [5-point-infraction], but then you're getting it the wrong way around. These discussions often go like this:
alice: "such and such ate my file!"
bob: "you should have made a back-up."
Sure, but that's not the point. The point is that MS Word is not ready for the desktop. I hate that program.

[MONODA]

perhaps a virus...

[madcow72]

I highly suggest using LaTeX for writing projects! Since LaTeX is only text files, there's essentially no chance of them ever getting screwed up, a document consists of a couple of kb in total, and importantly, the end product is gorgeous. LaTeX typesetting makes documents look professional, (even if they're not ;)).

[popch]

Sure, but that's not the point. The point is that MS Word is not ready for the desktop.

That's not the point, either.

We can not help the OP very effectively with his or her Original Problem. I tried to point out that the garbled files may or may not contain anything of value, but that's about it.

For most people contributing to this thread (other than comiserating) the point was that regardless of the product used, the risk of losing valuable work is unacceptably high unless you actively take measures to reduce those risks.

You also can lose valuable work quite effectively and efficiently using Free and Libre Open Source Software.

[forrestcupp]

Regardless of OS used, you still need a b/u solution in place.

+1

Just wait until you upgrade your kernel and your x-server crashes because you were using proprietary drivers and you're stuck at the command line. Then because you don't know what to do yet, you get frustrated and reinstall Ubuntu only to realize afterward that you just formatted the hard drive that had a week's worth of OpenOffice work.

You're going to have trouble in Linux, too. Back your work up.

[MONODA]

I suggest using software like flyback, it is similar to time machine for mac. just search flyback in google code.

[skippi90]

Just got 3 weeks worth of it back :)

I accessed my virtual drive I have at college from home and I had the files on there. :)

[DrMega]

Or as I've decided to do - use Open Office.

The files that MS Word saved are unusable.

Still backup. If you get a hard disk failure the day before your deadline, Linux or Open Office isn't going to save you. Regardless of OS, my top three rules of computing are as follows:

1. Backup
2. Backup, and
3. Backup.

[Kernel Sanders]

I must be lucky then, because for me, Office 2003 and Office 2007 have NEVER crashed.

OOo on the other hand is as crash happy as they come. I really really hope that an equivalent of Firefox can be made for Office Software, because right now, none of the open source apps that i've tried compare :(

IMHO, Ubuntu urinates on windows, and Firefox urinates on IE. Yet Office 2007 is the god king of office apps. I've been so much more productive and made documents that look better and more professional than any open source program can even hope to come close to.

We really really need a decent open source office system to take on Microsoft Office, because right now Open Office isn't cutting it IMHO :(

[Polygon]

also, that is why i kinda like using google docs. Its online, it automatically saves every like minute, and keeps like a time labeled history of changes you have made to your doc. Not to mention it can export to word, open office, html, rtf, all that fun stuff

Maybe just upload it there for safe keeping ;)

[K.Mandla]

I was working on work for college when all of a sudden, MS Word crashes and reduces my documents that were open to txt files full of un-needed characters.

Almost 1 month's worth of hard work, GONE.

I was still using Microsoft products due to their use in my course but now, I just can't bring myself to use such an unstable piece of ****. I am now Linux only.


Now for night after night with no sleep to get this work done in Open Office and handed in on time.:(
If it's not too late, I know the MS suite usually makes backups somewhere, in a weird location that I can't remember. We used to have this problem at work too, because the rat's nest of proprietary software never worked right, and people lost stuff all the time. It might be that we just had our system set up to do that though.

Is that an option for you?

[MONODA]

I think that MS word creates temperary files which are hidden. They are named like ~WRL8088.TMP and are in the same dir as the one that the original file was in; these have saved me several times.

[Fascination]

especially when using MS Word because its such an unstable piece of [5-point-infraction],


The point is that MS Word is not ready for the desktop. I hate that program.

Ive used MS Word (and indeed the whole office suite) for 5 years now at work. I think Word has crashed on me like twice in that entire time and both times were not due to the program itself.

I dont really see how you can fault it as a word processing app, and Im not entirely sure how you can view it as not being ready for the desktop (do you mean that we should only run it from the console on servers or something? :neutral:).
I think you need to get off your anti-microsoft soap box, take a deep breath and realise, "Oh wow, its a respectable word processing application. Oh well, end of story." ;)

[tehet]

Ive used MS Word (and indeed the whole office suite) for 5 years now at work. I think Word has crashed on me like twice in that entire time and both times were not due to the program itself.
YMMV. For the past 2.5 years my only experiences with Word have been in college and during graduation. In both cases you need to deal with the set-up that is given to you. Before that, when I still used MS at home, I think it also crashed a lot, but that's a fading memory. With OOo, Abi-word, KOffice and LaTeX I never experienced such issues.

I dont really see how you can fault it as a word processing app, and Im not entirely sure how you can view it as not being ready for the desktop (do you mean that we should only run it from the console on servers or something? :neutral:).
It was a tong in cheek comment (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=450676).

I think you need to get off your anti-microsoft soap box
There is anti-Microsoft, which I certainly am for their less than noble business practices. Then there is anti-Windows, which I'm not per se. But Word sticks out from my own personal experience. Plus some more minor annoyances that stem from a lack of integration across their office suite. So no, I don't have a soap box. I have real world issues with their office software and so does the OP. Making a back-up or what ever does not resolve the root issue: that Word is unreliable (perhaps not for you, but it is for some other people).

[hyper_ch]

Word can't coherently style a scientific paper of 10 or more pages. It screws up.

[koleoptero]

There are also solutions to backup your files online. I use adrive which offers 50 gb for free. Pretty enough for my photos, documents and other files that would be otherwise unrecoverable.

I can understand your pain though. I lost once all my documents too because my hard drive crashed :(