Automatically backup Word documents

Contrary to popular opinion, Word has no integral means of automatically saving the current document, nor of backing-up the current document. What it does have is an option to save AutoRecover information after a specific and configurable interval and an option to save a backup copy of the previously saved version of the document with the default file extension of WBK (and although there is no reason to do so, Word also allows the option to change this extension to the user's choice). This is not a true backup in as much as it is not a copy of the current version of the document.

AutoRecover provides the basis to recover a document (or part of it) in the event of a system crash, but is somewhat hit or miss and should not be relied upon to save your bacon.

or in Word 2007

and

There is a macro available with Word that will provide an auto save function called SaveReminder This is also available for download from this site via the above link.

This provides options to both remind you to save, or to automatically save either the current or all open documents.

The way to achieve a true backup is to save the document to two separate locations, however, because of the way Word creates temporary files in the workspace, and the unpredictability of the document size, these locations must never be on removable media - particularly floppy discs. Saving to such media is one of the main causes of document corruption (and thus loss of your work!).

You can achieve a true backup by means of vba, and the following code will do the trick:

Sub SaveToTwoLocations()
Dim strFileA As String
Dim strFileB As String
Dim strFileC As String
ActiveDocument.Save
strFileA = ActiveDocument.Name

'Define backup path shown in blue below
strFileB = "D:\My Documents\Word Backup\Backup " & strFileA
strFileC = ActiveDocument.FullName
ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=strFileB
ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=strFileC
End Sub

If you don't know how to use macros from web site listings, see the linked installation information.

This macro is best called from a toolbar button. It cannot, as it stands, be used to replace the default 'Save' function which it uses itself, though you could certainly call it from the toolbar icon or you could re-assign the CTRL+S keyboard shortcut to the macro.

In my own installation, I have two 'Save' icons (see below). The left is the original - the right (re-coloured with the customization tools ) calls the macro.

You could copy this image and paste it to your Word 2000/2003 toolbar command if you wish.

The macro uses the FileSave function to save the document, and allow you to name the document if a new document. The name is then stored and the document saved to the defined backup location - D:\My Documents\Word Backup\ in this example - though the code may easily be changed to reflect your own preference.

Having saved the document to the backup location, the Word focus is on the backed up version. To correct this, without the delay of closing and re-opening the required version of the document, the document is saved again to the original location.

The following macro is a variation on the version above, inspired by a question posed in Microsoft's newsgroup forums. A user wanted to backup his documents to one of two locations - depending on whether it was an odd or even date - and to copy the document to a flash drive.

The macro saves the document in its original location then makes a backup in one of two locations

D:\My Documents\Test\Versions\Odd

or

D:\My Documents\Test\Versions\Even

highlighted in the code in a bold blue typeface.

The document is then closed and the file copied to the flash drive - here shown with the drive letter H: and then finally the original document is re-opened. You can change the file locations to suit your requirements.

This method could be used to copy to a floppy drive, however Word documents can have a file size of many megabytes and the space available on a floppy drive is strictly limited.

Sub CopyToFlash()
Dim strFileA As String
Dim strFileB As String
Dim strFlash As String
Dim strBackupFolder As String

With ActiveDocument
     .Save 'Save the original document
     strFileA = ActiveDocument.name 'Store original document name

     'Select flash drive letter. Default is H
     strFlash = InputBox("Enter Flash Drive Letter", "Flash Drive", "H")
     strFlash = strFlash & strFileA 'Store flash drive filename
     ' Set backup alternative folder for odd and even dates
     If Even = (Day(Now) Mod 2) - 1 Then 'It's an odd date
          strBackupFolder = "Odd\"
     Else 'It's an even date
          strBackupFolder = "Even\"
     End If
     'Add full path to backup folder and date to filename
     strFileB = "D:\My Documents\Test\Versions\" _
                & strBackupFolder & Format$(Date, "MMM d ") _
                & strFileA
     .SaveAs FileName:=strFileB 'save backup in the appropriate folder
     .Close 'close the backup document
End With
On Error GoTo oops 'Trap copy error
FileCopy strFileA, strFlash 'Now copy document to flash drive
Documents.Open strFileA 'Re-open the original document
End
oops:
If Err.Number = 61 Then 'Flash drive is full error
     MsgBox "Disc Full! The partial file created will be deleted", vbExclamation
     Kill strFlash
Else 'Other error
     MsgBox "The flash drive is not available", vbExclamation
End If
Documents.Open strFileA 'Re-open the original document
End Sub