I've been forced to work in MS Word a lot recently. Since it crashes fairly often, I've been making backups on a floppy disk. It's silly to have to Save As onto the floppy disk, then Save As to get back to editing the file on the hard drive.
I propose a simple addition, the Backup As menu option that would save a copy of your file, but let you continue editing the main document.

The idea is to quickly backup a copy of a file to a location off of one's own machine and onto a file server, floppy disk, or something else more stable or secure than the local machine. I'm not strictly picking on Word here, because I can't think of any other program that does make this type of backup a 1 step option. It's easy enough to build this macro into most text editors or word processors, but I still think it would be a nice GUI default.
-- tenhand, Apr 19 2001

An excellent idea. A little bit baked... Word has an periodic automatic backup option. An old version of Corel Draw that I used to use also had an automatic backup.

What I'd like to see is a "backup" menu option in Windows Explorer, in addition to the current "copy" option. It would backup file(s) or directory(s) (sorry pedants) to a default backup directory.
-- eagle, Apr 19 2001


I don't understand. Why don't you just use "Save" occasionally? Did you mean to say "on the hard disk" instead of "on the floppy disk" the second time? Why do you backup onto a floppy disk -- do you think they're more reliable, or something? Why not skip the whole issue and turn on autosave?
-- egnor, Apr 20 2001


Keep a notepad and pencil by your computer and periodically - say every 10 to 15 words - write down everything you have just typed.If Word crashes you have a hardcopy backup to retype or scan and OCR back into your document.
-- popemolly, Apr 20 2001


Save a backup copy of a document
1 On the File menu, click Save As.
2 Click Options.
3 Select the Always create backup copy check box.
4 Click OK.
5 Click Save.

OR 1 open word.
2 click Help.
3 search for "backup"
4 use brain.

or it is i that am being used?
-- gnormal, Apr 20 2001


Hmmm, I don't think I described the scenario properly the first time. I've just tried to clarify above.

Word related:
The backup option doesn't seem to let me save the backup in a different place from the original, which kind of defeats the purpose of a backup. Word & windows have been crashing in ways that don't leave swap files & have corrupted the backup files. Yes I'm aware that word should & need not be this flakey, but even with the crashes I was able to finish the document & be done with word in less time than it would have taken to re-install windows & office.

waugsqueke, you are quite right. I'm not being forced to use word, I'm merely contractually required to deliver a document in a format that no other program can write. (This particular application masquerading as a document has enough styles, macros & other stuff to ensure that Staroffice won't work)

Peter Sealy's polaroid idea is brilliant. Finally an excuse to buy a digital camera.
-- tenhand, Apr 20 2001


I have seen some programs that offer "Save a copy as..." as a file menu option; too bad it's not standard, since it seems to be exactly what you're looking for.
-- supercat, Apr 20 2001



random, halfbakery