Lost speech material

ana verde

Estimable
Feb 24, 2014
1
0
4,510
Having written a speech in open office, amended and tweaked it over the past week always saving changes under the file name in documents odt form, I then wanted to change the type face to make it easier to read when I gave the speech. I highlighted the whole document (less than three pages) and went to change the font size when the whole thing disappeared. I panicked and immediately started trying to rewrite the major points on the blank screen while they were still in my mind. To my horror this went into the same file and now I cannot get the original back. Any suggestions?
 

Quarkzquarkz

Honorable
Sep 18, 2013
38
0
10,610
Well, if by chance your computer saves occasionally and was backed up when you had the original data for your document, you might be able to run system restore to retrieve it, however, I am not 100% sure. Lastly, you can sometimes return it to the manufacturer for a professional recovery but those can be very costly. Good luck!
 

JamesSneed

Distinguished
Oct 26, 2009
146
0
18,660
Check if the always create a backup copy was on: Tools>Options>Load/Save>General, Always create a backup copy.

If it is on you should see on that screen where to go look for saved versions. If its not on now would be a good time to turn it on because if you didn't take any kind of backup yourself then your work is probably lost.

Backups are a funny thing, they are such a waste of time up until the point they are needed. I like to use auto save features but for things that are important I always do something to back them up at the very least save them under a different name, backup to USB key, email the file to myself, or sync a copy on cloud storage.