Sep 10, 2016  Open the PDF file you want to search through in Preview. Pull down the “Edit” menu and choose “Find” then select the “Find” option in the submenu, alternatively you can use the Command+F keystroke Enter the search term you want to search the PDF file for, the search box appears in the upper right corner of the Preview window. Every Word document you create on your Mac is fashioned from a template. The purpose of a template is to store styles for documents. The purpose of a template is to store styles for documents. In the act of creating a document, you choose a template, and the styles on the template become available to you when you work on your document. Oct 18, 2019  To search from a Finder window, use the search field in the corner of the window: When you select a search result, its location appears at the bottom of the window. To get to this view from Spotlight, choose “Show all in Finder” from the bottom of the Spotlight search results.

Losing a word document could give you a heart attack. The lost document may be an assignment, a report or article that you have been working for days, weeks or even months. Sometimes, the Word crashed or your Mac suddenly shut off, leaving the Word document you are working on unsaved. Or you accidentally saved over a Word document on Mac, thus the document is overwritten. Even worse, the lost Word document might has been deleted by mistake.

Whether you need to recover an unsaved or deleted Word document on Mac, this article can give you some hints. Read the methods below to recover Word document on Mac.

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How to Recover Unsaved Word Document 2019/2017/2016/2011 on Mac

The good news is that by default, Word on Mac enables an autosave feature which automatically save the document you are working on every 10 minutes in the AutoRecovery folder. It is very likely that you can recover the document that you didn't save with the autosave files.

Note: The prerequisite for Word AutoRecover to work on Mac is that you have saved the document for at least one time. That is to say, if you just create a Word file, make some edits and then close the file by clicking Don't Save, there is no available AutoRecover file to recover the unsaved document.

If Word or Mac system crashed

After an application(such as Microsoft Office) crashes or macOS freezes, the next time you open Word, an AutoRecover file will be automatically opened and you can save it and pick up where you left off.

In the ideal world, you should see the unsaved document right after you relaunch Word. However, if things doesn't work as expected, you can find Word's autosave location on Mac and automatically recover the unsaved document.

AutoRecover files in Word 2011 for Mac

To recover unsaved Word document on Word 2011 on Mac, there are two ways.

1. Open AutoRecover files

Step 1 On Word, click File > AutoRecover.

Step 2 You should be seeing a list of AutoRecover files. According the saving date, open the unsaved file you are looking.

2. Locate AutoRecovery folder on Mac

Step 1 Open Finder.

Step 2 Press Alt key while clicking Go to reveal Library folder.

Step 3 Go to the Word autosave location: Library/Application Support/ Microsoft/Office/Office 2011 AutoRecovery.

AutoRecover files in Word 2016/2017 for Mac

There are also two methods to recover a Word document that was not saved on Mac for Word 2016, 2017 or newer.

1. Go to Microsoft User Data folder

Step 1 Close Microsoft Word on Mac.

Step 2 Open Finder > Documents > Microsoft User Data folder.

Step 3 Look through the files that are named 'AutoRecovery save of' and find the autosave files you need.

If you have problem in opening the AutoRecover Word files, rename the files and add '.doc' to the file extension.

2. Go to AutoRecovery folder

Step 1 Open Finder. Click Go > Go to folder.

Step 2 Enter the path as follow:

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery.

If you fail to recover unsaved Word documents with AutoRecover files, you can also check temporary folder on Mac, which may contain the files you are looking for.

Recover unsaved Word document with Mac Temporary folder

Step 1 Launch Terminal with Spotlight or go to Applications > Utilities.

Step 2 Enter the command line: open $TMPDIR. Hit Enter.

Step 3 The temporary folder will be open. Check if there is the Word document that you didn't save.

Accidentally Saved Over a Word Document on Mac

When you accidentally saved over a Word document that you actually need on Mac, you can try to recover the Word document from AutoRecovery folder. And if it doesn't work, try to recover the previous version of the document from Time Machine backups on Mac.

Step 1 Open Time Machine with Spotlight.

Step 2 Find the files you want to restore.

Step 3 Click Restore to restore the Word file.

How to Recover Lost/Deleted Word Documents on Mac

If you have Word documents that you have deleted mistakenly, FonePaw Data Recovery can recover the deleted Word documents for you. And sometimes, when you cannot find the unsaved documents from AutoRecovery folder, you may use the program to see if it can scan out the files that you need.

And after a Word document is deleted or lost, you should run FonePaw Data Recovery as soon as possible because the deleted document can be covered by new data on your Mac anytime. A rule of thumb for successful data recovery is Act Fast.

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Step 1 Run FonePaw Data Recovery for Mac.

Step 2 To recover deleted Word documents from Mac drive, click Documents and select the drive that the deleted Word files were saved. Click Scan.

Mac Word Search Shortcut

Step 3 The program will begin to scan and find the deleted documents on the drive, which include deleted Word, Excel, PDF, PPT and more.

Step 4 When the scanning stops, click DOC or DOCX and view if the deleted files you need are found. If not, click Deep Scan to find the deleted files are buried deeper.

Step 5 When you see the Word files you want to recover, click Recover.

Tips: Avoid Data Loss in Word for Mac

Set a shorter AutoRecover interval. By default, Word automatically save a copy of the Word document you are working on every 10 minutes. You can shorten the interval. On Word, go to Preferences > Output > Sharing > Save > Save every XX minute. For example, enter 5 to save a Word document every 5 minute.

Enable AutoSave if you are subscribed to Word for Office 365. With AutoSave enable, Word saves the changes you made every few seconds so you don't need manually click the Save button. Even if Word crashes unexpectedly, most changes on a document are saved automatically.

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Summary

Accidentally, you closed your Word without saving the work on Mac. Luckily, there is still a probability to recover your unsaved Word document on Mac OS X or macOS. According to the features of Microsoft Word for Mac, you may find the unsaved item from the Recovered items folder, Temporary Folder, or AutoRecovery folder. Besides, if you unintentionally deleted your Word document, you can get it back easily with EaseUS free data recovery software.

Prospect of Word File Recovery on Mac

• Word for Mac temporarily saves documents that the user has not yet saved themselves in a folder named 'Recovered items', located in the Trash. If there are no recovered files, this folder will not appear.
• Word for Mac saves a copy of the unsaved document named as Word Work File in the Temporary folder.
• Word for Mac includes an AutoRecovery option. It is turned on by default. The app will automatically save a copy of an open Word file every 10 minutes. If Word freezes while you're working on a document, or if the computer crashes, you can use the AutoRecovery copy to recover unsaved Word document with the changes or additions that you made in your last Word for Mac session.

Recover Unsaved Word Documents on Mac (3 Ways)

Based on the features of Microsoft Word for Mac, there are three potential ways to recover your unsaved Word documents. These methods can also be applied to recover unsaved Excel files on your Mac.

Method 1. Recover from the Recovered items folder in Trash

Step 1. Open 'Trash' by clicking its icon on the dock.

Step 2. Look for a folder labeled 'Recovered items' and click into it to look for your unsaved Word file. If you cannot find it, try the next solution.

Method 2. Recover from the Temporary Folder

Step 1. Go to 'Applications' > 'Utilities' and double-click 'Terminal'.

Step 2. In Terminal, enter open $TMPDIR and you will be directed to the TMP folder which is used to keep files temporarily.

Step 3. In the TMP folder, find and open the folder named 'TemporaryItems'. In it, right-click the desired unsaved Word files and 'Open with...' Microsoft Word.

Step 4. Save the Word file by clicking on 'File' > 'Save As' and save it to another location.

Method 3. Recover from the AutoRecovery

Unlike recovering unsaved Word document in Windows, the file recovery on Mac from the AutoRecovery folder is different.

Step 1. Open 'Finder' on your Mac, then head to 'Go' > 'Go to Folder'.

Step 2. Type: ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery and click 'Go'.

Step 3. Open the AutoRecovery folder, locate all the files that start with the words 'AutoRecovery save of'. Select the one you want to recover, rename the file, then add the '.doc' filename extension.

Step 4. Double-click the file. The document now opens in Word for Mac.

Step 5. Click the File menu and select 'Save As'. Type a new name for the file into the Name field, select a folder for the file and click the 'Save' button.

Bonus Tip to Avoid Data Loss & Recover Deleted Word Documents

After suffering from the fear of losing your Word documents, you must not want to experience this kind of situation again. Thus, it's necessary for you to know how to avoid losing your Word files. To avoid completely losing your files, you can:

Tip 1. Save the Word Document Whenever You Create a New One

An ever unsaved Word document exists in the computer's RAM, not on the hard disk. Thus, the chances to save a Word Document that has never been saved before are slim. Knowing this should give you a hint that you should save the word document at least once whenever you create a new one.

Tip 2. Change the AutoSave Interval

After you save your Word document, the AutoSave feature will begin to work. To minimize the loss of the progress on the file you are working, you can change the frequency of AutoSave:

Step 1. Open Microsoft Word on your Mac.

Step 2. Go to 'Word' > 'Preferences' and click 'Save' under Output and Sharing.

Step 3. Check all the items under Save Options (Recommended) and change the interval of AutoSave, for example, from every 10 minutes to every 5 minutes.

If you follow the two tips above, you will substantially decrease the risk of losing your Word documents. What if you carelessly deleted your important Word files on your Mac? No worry. There is a free method to retrieve permanently deleted Word documents provided below.

Tip 3. Recover Permanently Deleted Word Documents

How To Search For A Word On A Mac Web Page

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is not an exception in retrieving an unsaved Word document on Mac. Even so, it's still a last-ditch effort to take after all the other methods have failed. If there was a file saved at some point, manually or automatically, and you emptied the trash bin, the saved file will show up after you use the program to scan your hard drive.

Anyway, it's worth a try. You're strongly recommended to download its free version for the first attempt. It won't cost you a penny to search for your missing files. And since your problem is only for a few lost Word files, the 2GB recovery limit should be more than enough. The scan & recover process is very simple, we’ll show you how it works.

Step 1. Select the location where your important Word documents were lost and click Scan button.

Step 2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will start immediately a quick scan as well as a deep scan on your selected disk volume. Meanwhile, the scanning results will be presented in the left pane.

Free Word Search Maker Printable

Step 3. By Path and Type, you can quickly filter the Word files you've lost earlier. Select the target files and click Recover Now button to get them back at once.