AutoRecover and AutoSave Options in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

Has this ever happened to you: you have been working on a presentation for hours and suddenly PowerPoint or even the computer crashes? This may happen due to a power outage, instability of the system, or even PowerPoint itself may crash. You realize that you had not saved the presentation for a long time and you may have lost most of your work! Although you can keep your programs updated, system secure, and even save your file often, these steps provide no guarantee that you will never see a crash again and lose all or some of your work.

Fortunately, you can salvage most of your work if PowerPoint closes abnormally by enabling AutoRecover and AutoSave options. These options can be life savers as they help you prevent losing your precious work in two ways:

Your presentation is automatically saved

This type of protection works on a file-specific basis. If you enable AutoRecover or AutoSave, your file is automatically saved at a predetermined time interval. Therefore, if you have been working for a long time but forget to save a file or if your power fails, the file you have been working on contains all or at least some of the work you have done since you last saved it.

Your program state is automatically saved

This type of protection works on the program-specific basis. If PowerPoint crashes when you were working on a file that was never saved, then you will be presented with a recovered file the next time you launch the program. You can then save this file, and continue working with it, this is an extra benefit of enabling AutoRecover or AutoSave.

Follow these steps to enable AutoRecover or AutoSave options in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows:

1. Launch PowerPoint, access the File menu, and choose Options, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.
2. 
   Figure 1: Options within the File menu
2. Doing so brings up the PowerPoint Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 2, below. Make sure the Save option is selected within the sidebar of the dialog box, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2.
3. 
   Figure 2: PowerPoint Options dialog box
4. Alternatively, press both the Alt and T keys together, and next press O.


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3. Either way you bring up the PowerPoint Options dialog box, shown in Figure 2, above. Now, you need to select the following options within the Save presentations section:
• Make sure the Save AutoRecover information every x minutes check-box is selected, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, below. x denotes the number of minutes. Also, choose how often you want to save the AutoReceover information, to do so, enter the number in the Minutes box. Try to enter a small number in the minutes box, like 5. That way, you'll never lose more than 5 minutes of work.
• Select the Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving check-box, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 3. This option ensures that your file changes are not discarded entirely if you close PowerPoint without saving changes.
4. You'll also see the path location where your AutoRecover files are saved, as shown highlighted in green within Figure 3, below.
5. 
   Figure 3: AutoRecovery options within the PowerPoint Options dialog box
5. After making appropriate choices, click the OK button, as shown in Figure 2, previously on this page, to save these settings.