"When The Computer Eats Your Work" or "Fuck You, Microsoft Word!"

Seil · 12-05-2012, 04:26 PM

So I'm in Biology at school, and the final is tommorow. Today was just this general catch-up/study day. I've got the opportunity to re-do a lab, so I set up the microscope and get it done. Since I've got some time to spare, I walk over to the student lounge and I type up the lab so I have time to study tonight. It wouldn't print.

So I walked over to the office to explain my dilemma. They let me into the computer lab so that I can print. I save my work on the lounge computer and I walk over to the lab, only to find out that my work isn't there. Nothing is there. I quickly make tracks back to the lounge to try to recover it, but there's nothing. I go through countless guides on the interweb to figure out how to recover it, but nothing works. So, the last few hours have been wasted, apparently, because Microsoft Word is arse.

Fuck you, Microsoft Word.

Feel free to relate your own stories pertaining to the shared hatred of Microsoft Word, or any other program that quit, crashed or otherwise bugged unexpectedly and caused you to lose your work, hit the machine, break your hand, head to the hospital where you silently planned to assassinate the designer of the program that caused you so much anguish.

rpgdemon · 12-05-2012, 04:37 PM

I've been working with a group of people on a large paper with many tables and figures and such in it, and one of them has word keep crashing on them, and losing all the information they typed up.

I keep telling them to save more often, but they never do.

I use OpenOffice (LibreOffice now?), and it's great, and you should use that instead of word.

Flarecobra · 12-05-2012, 04:57 PM

I've always used OpenOffice here. Saved my ass a few times. I was writing a paper for my finals once, power failure. I was freaking out as I didn't think to save.

Thank god for it's "Autosave" function.

Amake · 12-05-2012, 05:07 PM

ABC stands for Always Back up Computer work. I've never lost anything memorable myself, except for this one time when I was just starting to use computers.

They had Mac desktops at this place* you could borrow, and I used to sit there all day for like a year until I got my first computer. Long story, but anyway these Macs were weird. I didn't know enough about them to write in notepad or anything, so I typed this novel I was writing right into the text prompt in an email to myself. And in these days I guess hotmail didn't have any draft backup system, at least none that I knew of.

And for some fucking reason these Macs had a key just right of the backspace key that had a symbol of a crossed-over rectangle on it, and the only function of this key as far as I knew was to screw you over in the worst way. When you pressed it, everything in your currently selected text prompt was deleted. It was deleted hard, with no backsies whatsoever. No undo, no paste, no insert, nothing could be done. I played around with this key for quite a bit when I first discovered it because I couldn't believe anyone would design something so evil. Even on a Macintosh. So, I'm pretty confident this is exactly what they key did. So I devoted a not insignificant amount of brain power to keep my fingers away from it at all times.

Except, of course, this one time. At the end of a 6 or 7 hour writing frenzy, I was in the zone, firing on all cylinders, ecstatic, a God creating, and my finger slipped when I hurried to backspace and super deleted my entire novel.

Now, I don't have any idea how much I had written , how much was left to write or if it would have been any good. But if I had to guess, taking into account my regular work habits, my youthful vigor at the time, the time I had spent obsessing over this story before beginning to write and the rate I've been known to work at in this state of mind, I may have lost about half of a NaNoWriMo novel with that one keystroke. It took about ten years before I tried writing the story again. (Turned out it wasn't very good.)

These days, I keep wanting to switch from Openoffice back to Word for little things like doubling up on spellchecking and word counting, and then my computer tells me I should by MS Office. So I guess I concur with the latter half of the sentiment in the tread topic.

Seil · 12-05-2012, 05:12 PM

My issue wasn't saving my work. I CTRL+S quite frequently in case something happens. It was something else.

synkr0nized · 12-05-2012, 06:02 PM

Unfortunately, no one can offer anything other than best-guesses at this point. I mean, it's entirely possible Word corrupted the save file. It's also entirely possible your school's setup for account storage is retarded and didn't keep the file. It's also possible that you were saving to a temporary location and not a permanent one.

The only real thing I can say at this point is be more careful, especially when not using your own machine, and make use of a USB drive whenever you have to go between computers. I usually copy to a USB drive and email myself a copy, checking that at least one of them opens and works before closing the original or moving from that machine.

Grandmaster_Skweeb · 12-05-2012, 06:44 PM

Amake more or less hit it on the head. It isnt a matter of what program you use, there's the chance of crashing. If it can crash it will crash. Murphey's law and all that.

Backup, backup, and backup the backups. Dont rely on just one point of storage. I have multiples of all my documents backed up on at least two thumb drives, dropbox, an external hard drive, and such.

Kyanbu The Legend · 12-06-2012, 12:11 AM

Making multiple back ups is very important to do no matter what it is.

It's always good to have 6+ copies of a project backed up across multiple storage devices and services.

I've had my fair share of GIMP being a dip shit once too many times to make a mistake now a days.

Magus · 12-07-2012, 11:47 PM

I print every time I type a line. It's hell on the rainforest but monkeys don't have to pass classes, do they?

12-05-2012, 04:26 PM	#1
Seil Super stressed! Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: British Columbia Posts: 8,081	"When The Computer Eats Your Work" or "Fuck You, Microsoft Word!" So I'm in Biology at school, and the final is tommorow. Today was just this general catch-up/study day. I've got the opportunity to re-do a lab, so I set up the microscope and get it done. Since I've got some time to spare, I walk over to the student lounge and I type up the lab so I have time to study tonight. It wouldn't print. So I walked over to the office to explain my dilemma. They let me into the computer lab so that I can print. I save my work on the lounge computer and I walk over to the lab, only to find out that my work isn't there. Nothing is there. I quickly make tracks back to the lounge to try to recover it, but there's nothing. I go through countless guides on the interweb to figure out how to recover it, but nothing works. So, the last few hours have been wasted, apparently, because Microsoft Word is arse. Fuck you, Microsoft Word. Feel free to relate your own stories pertaining to the shared hatred of Microsoft Word, or any other program that quit, crashed or otherwise bugged unexpectedly and caused you to lose your work, hit the machine, break your hand, head to the hospital where you silently planned to assassinate the designer of the program that caused you so much anguish.

12-05-2012, 04:37 PM	#2
rpgdemon Not a Taco Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 3,313	I've been working with a group of people on a large paper with many tables and figures and such in it, and one of them has word keep crashing on them, and losing all the information they typed up. I keep telling them to save more often, but they never do. I use OpenOffice (LibreOffice now?), and it's great, and you should use that instead of word. __________________ I did a lot of posting on here as a teenager, and I was pretty awful. Even after I learned, grew up, and came to be on the right side of a lot of important issues, I was still angry, abrasive, and generally increased the amount of hate in the world, in pretty unacceptable ways. On the off chance that someone is taking a trip down memory lane looking through those old threads, I wanted to devote my signature to say directly to you, I'm sorry. Thank you for letting me be better, NPF.

12-05-2012, 04:57 PM	#3
Flarecobra Burn. Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Classified Posts: 11,017	I've always used OpenOffice here. Saved my ass a few times. I was writing a paper for my finals once, power failure. I was freaking out as I didn't think to save. Thank god for it's "Autosave" function. __________________ "Only the fool wishes to go into battle to beat someone for the satisfaction of beating someone." -A Thousand Sons Rules. Read them, know them, love them.

12-05-2012, 05:07 PM	#4
Amake Keeper of the new Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: A place without judgment Posts: 4,506	ABC stands for Always Back up Computer work. I've never lost anything memorable myself, except for this one time when I was just starting to use computers. They had Mac desktops at this place* you could borrow, and I used to sit there all day for like a year until I got my first computer. Long story, but anyway these Macs were weird. I didn't know enough about them to write in notepad or anything, so I typed this novel I was writing right into the text prompt in an email to myself. And in these days I guess hotmail didn't have any draft backup system, at least none that I knew of. And for some fucking reason these Macs had a key just right of the backspace key that had a symbol of a crossed-over rectangle on it, and the only function of this key as far as I knew was to screw you over in the worst way. When you pressed it, everything in your currently selected text prompt was deleted. It was deleted hard, with no backsies whatsoever. No undo, no paste, no insert, nothing could be done. I played around with this key for quite a bit when I first discovered it because I couldn't believe anyone would design something so evil. Even on a Macintosh. So, I'm pretty confident this is exactly what they key did. So I devoted a not insignificant amount of brain power to keep my fingers away from it at all times. Except, of course, this one time. At the end of a 6 or 7 hour writing frenzy, I was in the zone, firing on all cylinders, ecstatic, a God creating, and my finger slipped when I hurried to backspace and super deleted my entire novel. Now, I don't have any idea how much I had written , how much was left to write or if it would have been any good. But if I had to guess, taking into account my regular work habits, my youthful vigor at the time, the time I had spent obsessing over this story before beginning to write and the rate I've been known to work at in this state of mind, I may have lost about half of a NaNoWriMo novel with that one keystroke. It took about ten years before I tried writing the story again. (Turned out it wasn't very good.) These days, I keep wanting to switch from Openoffice back to Word for little things like doubling up on spellchecking and word counting, and then my computer tells me I should by MS Office. So I guess I concur with the latter half of the sentiment in the tread topic. __________________ Hope insistent, trust implicit, love inherent, life immersed Last edited by Amake; 12-05-2012 at 05:10 PM.

12-05-2012, 06:02 PM	#6
synkr0nized synk-ism Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: throughout the Wired Posts: 6,861	I hope it wasn't a long lab. Unfortunately, no one can offer anything other than best-guesses at this point. I mean, it's entirely possible Word corrupted the save file. It's also entirely possible your school's setup for account storage is retarded and didn't keep the file. It's also possible that you were saving to a temporary location and not a permanent one. The only real thing I can say at this point is be more careful, especially when not using your own machine, and make use of a USB drive whenever you have to go between computers. I usually copy to a USB drive and email myself a copy, checking that at least one of them opens and works before closing the original or moving from that machine. __________________ Find love.

12-05-2012, 05:12 PM	#5
Seil Super stressed! Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: British Columbia Posts: 8,081	My issue wasn't saving my work. I CTRL+S quite frequently in case something happens. It was something else.

12-05-2012, 06:44 PM	#7
Grandmaster_Skweeb Doesn't care anymore Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 2,429	Amake more or less hit it on the head. It isnt a matter of what program you use, there's the chance of crashing. If it can crash it will crash. Murphey's law and all that. Backup, backup, and backup the backups. Dont rely on just one point of storage. I have multiples of all my documents backed up on at least two thumb drives, dropbox, an external hard drive, and such.

12-06-2012, 12:11 AM	#8
Kyanbu The Legend Local Rookie Indie Dev Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: New Jersey Posts: 5,497	Making multiple back ups is very important to do no matter what it is. It's always good to have 6+ copies of a project backed up across multiple storage devices and services. I've had my fair share of GIMP being a dip shit once too many times to make a mistake now a days. __________________ Last edited by Kyanbu The Legend; 12-06-2012 at 12:13 AM.

12-07-2012, 11:47 PM	#9
Magus Archer and Armstrong vs. the World Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 7,164	I print every time I type a line. It's hell on the rainforest but monkeys don't have to pass classes, do they?