Word does not auto save, it always promps you to save when you close the window, but if it crashes or is hard booted like with a auto restart, it does not.
Wrong!Word autosaves. I have Office 2010, here's the help on it:
Enable and adjust AutoRecover and AutoSave
To enable these features, do the following in one of these Microsoft Office programs:
Excel, PowerPoint, or Word
Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Program Name Options.
Click Save.
Select the Save AutoRecover information every x minutes check box.
In the minutes list, specify how often you want the program to save your data and the program state.
Tip The amount of new information that the recovered file contains depends on how frequently a Microsoft Office program saves the recovery file. For example, if the recovery file is saved only every 15 minutes, your recovered file won't contain your last 14 minutes of work before the power failure or other problem occurred.
Optionally, in Microsoft Office Word or Microsoft Office Excel, you can change the location (specified in the AutoRecover file location box) where the program automatically saves a version of files you work on.
Outlook
On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options, and then click Advanced E-mail Options.
Select the AutoSave items every: x minutes check box.
In the minutes list, specify how often you want the program to save your data and the program state.
Tip The amount of new information that the recovered item contains depends on how frequently a Microsoft Office program saves the recovery item. For example, if the recovery item is saved only every 15 minutes, your recovered item won't contain your last 14 minutes of work before the power failure or other problem occurred.
Optionally, on the AutoSave items in menu, select the folder where you want Outlook to automatically save items.
Visio
On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Save/Open tab.
Select the Save AutoRecover information every x minutes check box.
In the minutes list, specify how often you want the program to save your data.
Tip The amount of new information that the recovered file contains depends on how frequently a Microsoft Office program saves the recovery file. For example, if the recovery file is saved only every 15 minutes, your recovered file won't contain your last 14 minutes of work before the power failure or other problem occurred.
Publisher
On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Save tab.
Select the Save AutoRecover information every x minutes check box.
In the minutes list, specify how often you want the program to save your data.
Tip The amount of new information that the recovered file contains depends on how frequently a Microsoft Office program saves the recovery file. For example, if the recovery file is saved only every 15 minutes, your recovered file won't contain your last 14 minutes of work before the power failure or other problem occurred.
Autosave under Office 2003 or 2007 is under Tools option in the menu.
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