Let me tell you now:

When working with e-mail attachments, SAVE AS rather than just save!

If you're not sure what I'm talking about, let me explain:

I decided to work from home yesterday because I was getting ready to go home for Labor Day weekend. I had a document that I was working on for which I had to transcribe written instructions from my boss into a Word document that would be printed into an instruction manual for his other catering employees. There were pages and pages of written notes and small illustrations that I had to replicate. As the document was located on a network computer in the office, I e-mailed it to myself so I could work on it at home.

When I got home and was ready to work, I opened my Hotmail e-mail account, accessed the e-mail, and opened the attachment. I immediately started working on it, spending a ridiculous amount of time recreating the little illustrations with the shape tool (I had to create a rendition of the layout of the biggest banquet room, a proper table setting, and other complicated items). I saved the document constantly, using the CTRL+S shortcut every few seconds because I knew this was delicate and complicated work.

Once I finally reached the end of my work 2 hours later, I saved it a final time and closed it so I could attach it to a new e-mail and send it back to my boss. When I finished writing the e-mail message and clicked the "Attach" button, I couldn't find the document. I searched for it and couldn't find it. It wasn't anywhere. I started to get a little panicky, my heart beating frantically.

That's when I looked online and tried to look for quick-fixes. There were a number of suggestions for Microsoft Outlook... but it seemed as though all of the information on such Internet-based e-mail services agreed that there was no way to retrieve my file, even though I had only closed it a few minutes prior. It wasn't even a temporary Internet file. My work was gone.

It took about another hour to recreate the work I had done just a few minutes before. Thankfully, I wasn't too peeved, but if this was a senior project or something, I could see how I could have been devastated.

A lot of the Internet sources I consulted about this issue recommended this: NEVER just press save. Save As so you can choose a place ON YOUR COMPUTER to save this; you can't trust that saving it will place your document where you want it. It also said to warn as many people as you can. And so I am :)