Microsoft Outlook attachment help

[pdm111]

Hey everyone,

My boss has an issue and I'm wondering if he's SOL.

He received an email with a Word document attached. He opened the email and opened the Word file. He then started editing the document, saved it, closed it and re-opened it from the email. All the changes were saved so he continues making changes. He saves again, closes it, and instead of hitting forward he hit reply so the attachment is not sent.

Now the file with the changes he made, is that lost forever or is it saved somewhere?

[Mar]

He opened the file on the server and saved it there as well? Is this on his local machine or an Exchange server in a company?

[pdm111]

Originally posted by Mar
He opened the file on the server

Yes



and saved it there as well?

:dunno:

He just hit save. It didn't ask him for a location. Would it just be saving to the email that he opened? We tried a search on the C drive but nothing showed up.

[FiveFreshFish]

Originally posted by pdm111
We tried a search on the C drive but nothing showed up.

Did you search for *.doc* including all sub folders on C:\? This covers the .docx Word files with the new Office 2007 extension.

[revelations]

Doesent Office save attachments in My Documents somewhere?

[pdm111]

No luck on the search. Thanks for the suggestions. The lesson here is save attachments to the C drive (or anywhere you can access later) before making changes haha

[dr_jared88]

oulook stores an olk file of the attachment in the temporary internet files folder iirc

[Mar]

They might still be on the server, is he using an Exchange server at work or is this on his computer at home? I guess I'm confused as to why it's not still in his inbox, if he hits reply it wouldn't delete the email he received, it would still be in the inbox. And even if it's not, it would still be in the Sent Items folder.

[pdm111]

Originally posted by Mar
They might still be on the server, is he using an Exchange server at work or is this on his computer at home? I guess I'm confused as to why it's not still in his inbox, if he hits reply it wouldn't delete the email he received, it would still be in the inbox. And even if it's not, it would still be in the Sent Items folder.

It's a server at work but we have no IT help on site.

The thing is he was making changes directly to the file from the email. When he hit reply, the file wasn't attached to the email. The original is in his inbox but none of the changes are there.
Apparently when he closed the email, it asked him if he wanted to save again and he hit no :facepalm:

If you guys are really bored, try sending yourself an email with a Word file attached. Open the email and open the file (don't open the file from the preview pane). Make some change to it and hit save. It won't ask you for a location. Close the Word file and open it again. The changes should still be there but when you close the email, it'll ask if you want to save the changes. If you hit No, the changes will be lost. I guess it was saving to some temp file or something.

[playb0i]

I don't know if this will help you, but my outlook temporary files are located at

C:\Documents and Settings\*USERNAME*\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLKB78

You may have to adjust your folder options to show system folders/hidden files...

Good luck!

[topmade]

Look in these locations for the OLK folder location and go to it to see if you can find the file. The OLK folder stores the attachments when you directly open it from email and may have a copy of it with the changes

Outlook 2003 - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security

Outlook 2007 - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security

Open the OutlookSecureTempFolder for the location.

If it's not there, and you have auto save turned on, check there to see if there is a recent copy. The location will be in the word options.

If you can't find anything in those two spots, your boss is SOL.

[pdm111]

Originally posted by topmade


Outlook 2007 - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security


Guess I should have said we're using Vista and Office 2007. I don't know if this is the same path but I go to:

C:\Users\NAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\12.0

When I open 12.0 it is empty. FYI all hidden files are being displayed




If you can't find anything in those two spots, your boss is SOL.

That's what I was leaning towards.

[Quiet10]

topmade means the locations in the registry. not on the C:\ drive

[pdm111]

So I go to the registry to get the location of the temp folder? If so, it's showing:

C:\Users\NAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\71TN3QMP\

When I open the Windows folder, there is no Temporary Internet Files folder.

I really appreciate the help guys but my boss has redone everything already.

If you still feel like enlightening me, please continue posting ideas.

[FiveFreshFish]

Sign him up for a novice-level computer course. :D

[realazy]

Open word again it should be in the recent documents under the file menu.

If it's not there, hopefully he hasn't saved any other files and if he clicks save or save as on a new file, it should default to the last directory he saved it in.