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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: Cancan on Tuesday 24 December 13 21:04 GMT (UK)
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Hi All,
I have been indexing using Excel 2007 edition.
I have seven columns across top A,B,C,D,E,F,G. When I finish with the present work I highlight all work and organise it alphabetically.
Now, for some reason 'Dopey here' has failed to highlight column G and have organised it all alphabetically as usual the other night.
I have saved work as such.
Tonight I have just gone to do more indexing and have noticed that Column G isn't matching the information in the other columns!
Does anybody know if I can reset the work to the date I was working on the other night before I saved the index? Or is there some other way to do this?
I'm really hoping there is a way, as with over 16,000 names I'm not wanting to start again, but have a feeling this is what is going to have to happen!
Fingers crossed XX!!!!
Cancan :-[
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Do you have Excel set up to create automatic backups? These would be saved with an .XLK extension in the same directory with your spreadsheet.
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Hi,
Thank You!!
I believe it automatically saves every 10 minutes.
When I have finished and go to close, it comes up - save index.xlsx'?
Not computer literate, so hope this makes sense
Cancan :)
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Hi Again,
I have just right clicked onto the file and gone into properties, there is a tab with 'previous restore', I'm thinking this is what you mean.
There is a date a couple of days before MY last save of file, it does say I can restore to this date!
Just a little nervous of clicking 'Restore'
Cancan :-\
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What I would do, just to be cautious, is this. Exit Excel without saving your corrupted file. Then make a copy of it in another location so you can get back to it if need be. Then try the restore option.
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Hi,
Great News!!!
It has worked!!! Have lost a few hundred names but at least that is a small amount to what I could have lost!!
Lesson learned to double check that ALL columns are highlighted!!!
Learned something new, as did not know I could 'restore'
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!!
Cancan :D ;D :D ;D :D ;D
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Maybe, in future, don't highlight the cells!
Just click on any cell within the table, and do the Sort - it knows you want all rows and columns bounded by space-filled rows and columns! ;D
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By right clicking an Excel file there is an item option Restore Previous Versions.
The number of versions available is dependent on where your use Windows Backup or not. Additionally there are previous versions created by System Restore creating restore points but this is only available if you have System Protection turned on, which is normally switched on by default.
So although you have been lucky, you could have been luckier if you had taken regular backups.
I'm looking at one of my files that I do not use very frequently, but there are 19 versions available going back to 30/04/2012. Because I do a weekly backup to a large disk, it means I can have that many versions available to restore if and when I want them.
I'm looking at another file and I see that the second version is available from a Restore Point rather than Windows Backup. That is quite rare though. It just demonstrates how important backups are.
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Lesson learned to double check that ALL columns are highlighted!!!
If you click the top left box it highlights the whole sheet.
Better also to use Save As to create a new version each time and add the date in the title. Or add V1, V1.0, V2 etc after the name. For an important file you should also be keeping a copy 'off site'.
Ken
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Hi.
I use Excel quite a lot and I always highlight the sheet like Ken says.
I more importantly put a leading zero field in Col A i.e. 000 to 835 on
every file I make, that means you can sort on numerous cols and
make new sheets if required and also you can always go back to the
original file without losing any data.
Sandy
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The problem you had with the sort is just one of many ways a spreadsheet can destroy your data.
There is a free application called GenScriber that is made specifically for transcribing genealogy records.
It is designed to not do the bad things that spreadsheets do. Give it a try.
http://genscriber.com (http://genscriber.com)
Now that I have used genscriber, I would never use a spreadsheet for genealogy data.
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Hi,
Great News!!!
It has worked!!! Have lost a few hundred names but at least that is a small amount to what I could have lost!!
Lesson learned to double check that ALL columns are highlighted!!!
Learned something new, as did not know I could 'restore'
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!!
Cancan :D ;D :D ;D :D ;D
Can I just say something about the 'restore'. It's not actually a restore. It is a drop back.
When you run 'restore' you actually lose everything you did after the time you go back to.
That includes any emails, images, docs, applications etc. Anything you created after the 'restore' date.
It may have helped you recover most of your spreadsheet, but you may have lost more without knowing it.
Immediately after the restore, back up your spreadsheet and move forward again.
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Suggestion:
If you saved your work as say "March 11th" and then next time March 12th you would be able to go back to any previous data
File> Save as.....
But you probably knew that already