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.

Dec 11, 2012  When you click on Control f to search for words or phrases in a document a pop-up window opens up. Note: If the document above looks slightly different from yours, I use Open Office, a Free program, on my PC. It has the same features as Word and is compatible with it. On Your MacIntosh Computer Find in a Document on a Mac. When you click on Control f to search for words or phrases in a document a pop-up window opens up. Note: If the document above looks slightly different from yours, I use Open Office, a Free program, on my PC. It has the same features as Word and is compatible with it. On Your MacIntosh Computer Find in a Document on a Mac.

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'.

How To Look Up Words On Mac

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

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.

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.

Home > Articles > Apple > Operating Systems

1. Create and Save a TextEdit Document

How To Search A Web Page

TextEdit is a small yet surprisingly powerful word processor. Use it to write memos, letters, diaries, novels, grocery lists, memoirs, or any other text document. You can create simple tables and automatically numbered or bulleted lists, add shadows to type, insert images, search and replace text, and more. But it’s not a full-blown word processor such as Apple’s Pages (check the App Store in your Dock) or MarinerWrite (MarinerSoftware.com) or the sweet, new Pagehand (Pagehand.com). Although TextEdit can’t do all the fancy things a big word processor can, it’s excellent for many projects.

If you’ve never used a word processor before and you don’t know how to open an application and save files, enter text, select text for formatting, cut/copy and paste, etc., please read The Little Mac Book first! This chapter assumes you know the basics of working in a word processor.

Create and Save a TextEdit Document

Open TextEdit (it’s in your Applications folder and in Launchpad). Then from its File menu, choose “New.” A blank window opens for you to start typing.

Choose how you want to see the document: From the Format menu, choose “Wrap to Window” (below, left) or “Wrap to Page” (below, right).

Save your document as usual (from the File menu, choose “Save...” give it a name, and store it in a folder where you’ll find it again). As you continue to work on your TextEdit document, an “Edited” button appears in the top-right corner of the document window. This is a visual clue that the document has been changed and you might want to save the changes (press Command S).

You can click that “Edited” button or triangle to choose from several options:

• Lock prevents further changes. If you try to type, you get an option to Unlock it. This is not a secure lock—anyone can click the Unlock button.
• Revert to Last Saved Version gives you the option to revert to the last time it was saved (either by you or by TextEdit), or you can revert to an older version, as explained on the opposite page.
• Browse All Versions—see the opposite page.

How To Search For Words In Messages On Mac

AutoSave and versions

TextEdit automatically saves your document every hour as you work on it, as well as when you close it (it doesn’t ask—it just saves). In addition, you can (and should) save more often (press Command S).

As soon as you save and name a document, TextEdit keeps track of all previous versions of that document; that is, every time you save or TextEdit saves, a new version is stored. You can return to any of these versions, as explained below.

How To Search Keywords On Mac

To manually save the current version, go to the File menu and choose “Save a Version,” or press Command S.

To save a document with another name or in another file format, go to the File menu and choose “Duplicate.” Save this new file with a new name.

Restore a previous version

To turn to a previous version of the document, click the top-right corner to get the menu shown below. Choose “Browse All Versions....” All previous versions of your document appear, as shown at the bottom of this page.

Click on the title bars to go back in time to previous versions, or click in the vertical timeline to view various versions. When you find the one you want, click the “Restore” button at the bottom of the screen.

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