Part I: Getting Started with Excel
FIGURE 6.2
You can recover to older versions of your workbook.
Recovering unsaved work
When you close a workbook without saving your changes, Excel asks whether you’re sure. If
that unsaved workbook has an autosaved version, the Are You Sure dialog box informs you
of that fact.
To recover a workbook that you closed without saving, choose File ➪ Info ➪ Manage
Workbook ➪ Recover Unsaved Workbooks. You’ll see a list of all draft versions of your work-
books. You can open them and (if you’re lucky) recover something that you needed. Note
that the unsaved workbooks are stored in the XLSB file format and are read-only files. If
you want to save one of these files, you need to provide a new name.
Draft versions are deleted after four days or when you edit the file.
Configuring AutoRecover
Normally, AutoRecover files are saved every ten minutes. You can adjust the AutoRecover
save time in the Save tab of the Excel Options dialog box. You can specify a save interval
between 1 and 120 minutes.
If you work with sensitive documents, you might prefer that previous versions aren’t saved
automatically on your computer. The Save tab of the Excel Options dialog box lets you dis-
able this feature completely or disable it just for a specific workbook.
