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Excel®
2016
Document Recovery
to the Rescue

2. Excel 2016 offers a document recovery feature that can help you in the event of a computer crash. The
AutoRecover feature is set to automatically save changes to your workbook every ten minutes. You can
shorten or lengthen this interval as you see fit.
To adjust the interval:
• Choose File ð Options ð Save to open the Excel Options dialog box with the Save tab selected.
• Use the spinner buttons or enter a new automatic save interval into the text box marked Save
AutoRecover Information Every 10 Minutes before clicking OK.
It should be noted that the AutoRecover feature only works on Excel workbooks that you’ve saved at least
one time, so it’s important that you get into the habit of saving new workbooks very shortly after starting
to work.
In the Event of a Computer Crash
After a computer crash, a Document Recovery task pane is displayed the next time you start Excel after
rebooting the computer. This task pane shows the available versions of the workbook files that were open
at the time of the crash. The original version of the workbook file is identified, including when it was saved,
as is the recovered version of the file (displaying an .xlsb file extension) and when it was saved.
To open the recovered version of a workbook, position the mouse pointer over the AutoRecover version
and click its drop-down menu button followed by Open. After you open the recovered version, you can
then save its changes by selecting the Save button on the Quick Access toolbar or by choosing File ð Save.
To save the recovered version of a workbook without bothering to first open it, click the recovered version’s
drop-down button in the Document Recovery task pane, and then choose Save As.
To abandon the recovered version permanently (leaving you with only the data in the original version), click
the Close button at the bottom of the Document Recovery task pane. When you do this, an alert dialog box
appears, giving you the chance to retain the recovered versions of the file for later viewing.To retain the files
for later viewing, select the Yes (I Want to View These Files Later). To retain only the original versions of the
files shown in the task pane, select the No (Remove These Files. I Have Saved the Files I Need).
Excel®
2016 Document
Recovery to the Rescue
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