30
Jul
Preventing Excel Data Loss
Spreadsheet used to run laboratory (where specimens were stored) was used all day, fear was file would be closed and data would be lost. Post it had been on screen saying “Please remember to save after every entry.” This wasn’t error proofed and the post its guaranteed nothing.
Changed “auto save” function to save every 1 minute instead of every 10 minutes. This reduces the risk of lost data.
Less risk of lost data, less visual clutter as result of taking post it note down.
I was very excited to read further about this improvement, as I was certain that Excel didn’t have an “auto-save” option.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:36 amI just checked again (in Excel 2003) and there still isn’t an option for that. Are you using a newer version? Or are you confusing auto-save with auto-recovery? If this is the case, I would point out that the auto-recovery option is not actually saving your document in the traditional way, but merely creating a temporary file that will allow you to open up a recovered version of your document in the case of a program lock-up or system issue. Excel points out in their Help file that auto-recovery is in no way a substitute for regular, intermittant saving of the document.
Please let me know if there is something that I am missing - I really wish I could auto-save, as we work with thousands of Excel documents that are all quite critical to our operation.
You’re right, it’s only “auto recover”. I guess part of the process needs to be doing a full save every so often. Still, having auto recover it better than nothing (or saving each and every time), I supposed)
July 31st, 2007 at 11:54 amif you want a reminder to save a regular intervals you could write one in outlook, mail, eudora or whatever your calendar/diary software is
August 1st, 2007 at 3:25 amWrite a macro to save after every entry.
August 6th, 2007 at 12:43 pmAnother option would be to use Google spreadsheets, which saves automatically and allow for multiple users to access them simultaneously in such a way that you can see which cell other users are editing by the color. Not to mention that the document can be selectively shared or published.
I am working on a plug in to Microsoft Excel that uses Google as a back-end saving mechanism to provide that capability in Excel client.
August 16th, 2007 at 11:23 pmsee website shown above on how to use the add-in tool in excel to auto-save.
January 29th, 2008 at 9:07 pmThere is fine tool-How to recover Excel files, it supports almost all existing versions of XLS and XLSX formats: Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, XP, 2002, 2003 and 2007 (xlsx repair), recover style of table, recover number formats (except colors, used in a number format), recover fonts, recover worksheets, recover columns width and rows height, recover cell data of workbook, recover all types of formula including functions, internal, external and name references, recover cells format (font, number format, line style, fill pattern, text orientation an alignment) recover colors of cells,recover colors of cell’s borders.
July 10th, 2008 at 6:51 am