How to Get a PowerPoint Presentation Back That I Didn't Save

That heart stopping moment when you wish you could rescind a click of your mouse to undo what you've just done -- it might be hours of work gone due to a momentary lapse, or your computer may have "helpfully" reset while you were at lunch, leaving you without the PowerPoint presentation you'd been working on. Microsoft Office has a few tricks up its sleeve to help recover a closed file even if you didn't save it.

When you close PowerPoint it holds a copy of any unsaved presentations you might have been working on, just in case you change your mind after closing them. The File menu has a Recent option where you can find the "Recover Unsaved Presentations" button in the lower right corner. Click on it and you'll see a folder with any recently open presentation that you hadn't yet saved. All you need to do is open the file and properly save it and you're back in business.

In addition to keeping a copy of any unsaved files, PowerPoint can also automatically save files that you're working on. In the Options window -- found through the File menu -- you can set the different Save options for PowerPoint, including how AutoRecover works. By default it's set to save your file every 10 minutes to a temporary folder. You can see where the folder is and even browse to it if you think your unsaved PowerPoint file might be hiding there.