Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Technical Help and How To's Weird document problem

Does anyone have any idea why I would find a document on search, but when I look in the file it should be in, it's not showing up? I hope that made sense.

It could have to do with what type of document it is. I save the Parts I post in Rich Text Format and when I go to save a new part in that folder it looks empty because it's only showing me the docx documents.

Make sure that the "file type" button is "all files".

Another thing I've noticed is that sometimes there are duplicate files with the same name in different areas of my hard drive (THANK YOU, Microsoft. :rolleyes: ), so it is possible you aren't looking in the right folder.

I've found sometimes when I download stuff, if I don't designate it as "save as" it puts the stuff somewhere I've never been. (It's got several documents in that folder, but I have no idea where it is on my harddrive ), so then I have to re-download the file to where I can find it. It's on my computer, somewhere, but it would take more effort to find that "download" file than to re-download it.

Hope this helps. Is it a WORD document that is being elusive? Or a different type of document / file?

Virginia, I can help (a little) with your downloaded-who-knows-where issue. Download a file with a unique name and let Windows put it wherever it hides files. Search for that file on your hard drive. Right click on the filename and select "Open containing folder". That should take you to the magical land of Oz where your IE has been hiding your files.

It's a Word file, Virginia. Even when I tried to re-save it with a different name under the same file, it didn't pop up. Where would I find file type? I can only bring this file up by doing a search, and the search shows it to be in the folder where it should be. So I'm left scratching my head.

I'm not 100% sure I understand the problem, Nancy. Are you saying that you can see the Word document in a folder, but not when you open Word and then try to see the document? What happens when you double-click on the file icon in Computer? Does it open?

Does the file icon look like a Word document icon (i.e., a drawing of a page with a blue "W" on it)?

What version of Word are you using?

Puzzled,
Lynn

When you click the "Open File" button within WORD, and click over to the right folder. At the bottom of the screen there's an area for you to type in the name of the file in a space marked "File name:". To the right of that, there's a button which if you push brings up a scrollable list of different types of files. Make sure "All files" is included.

Have you tried to open it from the "search"? Double click of the document name (file) and it should open from there. I just tried this with both WORD open or closed, and it worked both ways.

Lynn, I'm going to my documents and when I go to the correct folder to open the file, I don't see it. But if I use "save as" to try to save another copy, the file is already there in the folder it's supposed to be in. I just tried to actually open it from Word rather than my documents, and it was there, but other files that should be in the folder aren't showing up. That seems very strange to me. I'm actually seeing this with several files. I'm hoping something isn't corrupted. I'm using Word 2002. Yes, I know; it's ancient. The W is showing up.

Virginia, I can open the file from search. I was able to change Word to show all files, but it isn't showing all of them. And they still aren't showing up from my documents.

Does that help? I hope so. My computer is ancient but it needs to hold on a while longer!

Hi Nancy,

Do you know what version of Word was used to create the file? I'm suspecting that the file may have a .docx extension. If so, you will need to download a free compatibility pack from Microsoft (available here ).

When you say you can't see the file inside the folder, are you looking at it while you are in Word itself, or are you looking at it from within Computer or Windows Explorer? If you are in Word, that would make sense: Word will only show you files of a type it can open. If you are in Computer or Windows Explorer, I have no clue what's going on.

Good luck,
Lynn

I agree with Lynn. It's possible since you have such an old version of WORD the "all files" doesn't include files from the newer versions, because it doesn't recognize those new suffexes (is that the right word?).

If you open the file from "search" and rename it / save it as a new name, putting it in WORD 2002 format (or in that version) does it show up?

The documents were all created with the 2002 version as they are stories that I wrote. But most were seen by Beta Readers which could have changed things. I can't see if it's a docx which I have had problems with, but I've always been able to fix that by getting rid of the x. When I tried to save them in Word 2002, I was told that I couldn't. I actually thought I had the 2003 version, but Word is telling me it's the 2002 version. I suppose that could have been messed up when I had the computer worked on. I'm ready to pull my hair out and throw the computer out the window... Wish I could really do that.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by VirginiaR:
<strong>
I've found sometimes when I download stuff, if I don't designate it as "save as" it puts the stuff somewhere I've never been. (It's got several documents in that folder, but I have no idea where it is on my harddrive Michael

Thanks for all your advice about where IE puts my downloads. The truth is, I could probably find it, if I *tried*. I'm just lazy and have lots of disk space (fairly new computer), so I end up just downloading it again. I'm sure I'll stumble across it someday and say, what's all this stuff taking up harddrive space? And delete all those old files. I'm sure it's in some stupid folder marked "downloads", which :rolleyes: is never where I personally would ever put downloads. If one were going to download something, would one just dump it in a junk folder named "downloads"? If it wasn't worth it to put it in the right folder, it probably wasn't worth downloading in the first place.

My solution is to "Save As" in compatibility mode to the Desktop. Instead of searching for it, you later put it where you want it. Lord knows, my desktop is busy, but I'm not in searching for something. Also make Folders for types of stories and leave them on the Desktop.
I download many pieces of art and clipart and do the same thing.
Hope this helps.

Artemis

Thanks, Artemis. I'll try that - even though my desktop looks pretty full!

That's only the first step. Put like items (i.e. Fanfic) in a folder and then put the folder in your library. Only the most recent stuff stays on the Desktop. Think of it like folders on a real desk and then put in a file drawer. It doesn't remain on your Desktop, but you know where it is. The same goes for storing pictures of trips, etc.
This is especially handy for beta reading stories, which I know you do. You're not going to keep these forever. Make a separate folder for types of stories, for instance. A good one is "current projects."
This seems obvious, I know, but when it becomes a habit, it is really, really helpful. Just train yourself to do it one way and it will work.
regards
Artemis

This might be interesting for those of you with Windows 7:

Changing default save folders for Windows 7

Can't say it actually works, since I haven't used Windows in quite a while.

malu

Very interesting Malu. Thanks.
Artemis