trying to multi-task

[IcSilk]

I type alot of papers in MS Word and have developed the habit of pressing ctrl-s frequently to save the work as it progresses, then I copy it to my thumb drive to take to school for printing on the due date.

Because I get a bit neurotic sometimes about multi-tasking, Im now working on my hyper-tasking abilities - is it possible to set it up so that, as long as my thumbdrive is inserted into the USB, when I press ctrl-s to save it will simultaneously save it on my computer and on the thumbdrive??

Obviously this is not a necessary option to have, but it sure would be nice for us sometimes flighty and absentminded multi-taskers, lol

Pre-thanx to all respondents.

[phishphreek]

What about using something like the windows briefcase feature?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307885

Or, you can use a third party tool...
http://downloads.zdnet.com/download....e&docid=225254

It looks like the second option may be more what you're looking for.

[nihil]

Hmmmm,

My guess would be "no", but I have not dug around in the inner workings of Office 2003 and Office 2007 yet. Can you tell us which version of Word you are using?

My understanding, which is based on Office 97 and 2000 is that when you hit "save" (either via the icon or the shortcut) it updates the master record, or "original document" if you like.

You do not have to do this of course, as there is an option in the settings to have it automatically save every "x" minutes, where "x" is a value that you determine. I always advise users to set this feature up, as you may get distracted and forget to do it manually.

Incidentally both of them work side by side, so you can use both

Another setting is to tell Word to create a backup copy when you exit the document. This is held with a different file extension from the .doc master record.

I guess that you could use some sort of third party backup software as another option.

[IcSilk]

Im yet to check out those links - which Im aiming to do presently ..

So, Nihil, theoretically I can set it up to auto-save to the master file, and ctrl-s would save it to a seperate file ie. my thumbdrive (if inserted)??

[nihil]

Errrr, No, ctrl-s (or the floppy disk icon on the toolbar) performs exactly the same task as the automatic save. It updates the master record, wherever that happens to be.

The "master record" is defined as the one you currently have open and are editing.

I don't believe that you can save it to the thumb drive (or any other for that matter) as Word would consider it to be a separate document.

Given what you are doing, I would also recommend that you activate the create backup record on close.

What version of Word are you using? It might be possible to get the backup record to go to another drive? Obviously this will only happen when you actually close the document.

[IcSilk]

Using Office XP, believe its 2003, but the "about" section under the help menu says Word 2002.

[phishphreek]

Office XP is 2002. Office 2003 would say 2003.

[nihil]

Ok mate, Office XP is actually Office 2002. I have the pro version of that, so I will try a bit of experimentation.

On reflection, there isn't an option to save the backup anywhere else other than in the same directory as the master document. This is because it just renames the original and creates a new copy.

I am guessing that it should be possible to write a macro to replace the standard save function and make a copy somewhere else?

[dalek]

Why not just save the document "save as" to your thumb drive/memory key and set the auto save function to every 10 mins or so and when you are done, just make a copy and save to your PC's hard drive, no different then using a file on a shared network folder and "saving as" to a PC hard drive, if you want to make copies.

I tried it out on Office 2000 with my memory key and works just fine, which is good, because you can't close the thumbdrive/memory key unless you close the application first, in this case Office Word...so the last thing you would do is stop the memory /thumb drive....

[IcSilk]

yeah, all thats wrong with that though is it still doesn't take out that extra step of saving it to the second location .... its not a biggy, just curious as to how far I could go with hyper-tasking