To ask you to HELP me not to fail uni urgently

[fuckingwankingshittycomputer]

My computer is old I hate it

It's a mac

I need to submit as .doc

Weeks of work has now changed to bloody symbols that are unreadable

Last time it worked simply by saving as .doc

I am panicking please tell me this is easily fixed

I do have an old draft version worst case scenario but I've just lost a few days worth of formatting, spell checking and making sure I haven't accidentally plagiarised anything

I know how this feels from late nights of working on large proposals...

Even relative who's a computer whizz can't figure out why it fucked it up with me talking through the steps I used

Or fix it

I will have to cancel tomorrow and get my head down again in hope I succeed on time

But first I'm bloody borrowing someone's laptop that isn't from the 1800's and saving on a memory sticks under 1000s of different names

I am so mad right now, woken the dc up cursing at the computer

Have you tried a quick Google search (not being patronising). Somebody must've faced exactly this issue.

What application did you use to create it? MS Word?

It is likely your computer will still have a cached version that you access. It may not have all of your last edits but should have the majority.

Theres a couple of other options too.

Let me know what app you used and I can possibly advise. I work in Technology by the way!

For my possible solutipn to have any chance of working - do not restart or shut down your laptop

Fortunately there is a grace period for technical problems so... hopefully they'll be kind

It's there own fault (it's not, it makes me feel better to think so though) because they bloody told me not to invest in a new computer as my disability made me eligible for some help buying one (why I am working on something from the 1800's in the interim) so I'm waiting on that and this will be no longer fucking me up

OP you have my sympathies. Computers messing up when you have a uni deadline you’ve worked hard towards are so bloody annoying. Hope it all works out

Trying to pm you

Is it worth sending the screwed up file to get the tech issues thing marked ASAP?

@Newdad19 it was a textedit file to start with (rtf)

I changed the format when saving it to word 97 or whatever it was... in the drop down

I'm having a fag before I dare look (grim but needed now) but relative also works in technology and hasn't succeeded

But I am crossing every body part that someone does

This computer is so old the browser can't cope with googledocs...

Can you copy the text, log on to iCloud online and paste it into pages there? And then change the font format while it's on pages?

No I think I balls myself up if I send screwed up file through the system (not sure it will accept it anyhow)

Technically as long as I do cancel tomorrow if worst comes to worst I probably won't fail uni

What I will do is miss important things like turning up for work

Will check my Pms I'm on the app on phone to rant at you all about this major cock up

My computer is so old I don't think it knows what cloud is...

My phone does but that's no use

Okay first thing to check....

1. Go to TextEdit and into Preferences

1. Go to the "Open and Save" tab

1. Check that the second box is not checked " Display RTF Files as RTF code instead of formatted text.

I doubt this is the cause but lets start by ruling out the basics.

Pms arent working for me either so will just try here

Have you tried googling for the answer - for example this:
discussions.apple.com/thread/2603039

Hold on it saved it as roman or something I think when relative checked

I didn't tick that - I definitely ticked word 97.doc

Second thing I would try....

1. Open Utilities application

1. Click Terminal

1. When this opens enter open $TMPDIR

1. This is going to open your temporary directory - its a storage location your mac will regularly save versions of files in the background.

1. Open the folder TemporaryItems

Hopefully a recent version of your doc will be there

I didn't have always back up thingy on

Last time I was sensible enough to email relative with it so they could submit it for me and change format checking it before I even tried saving myself

However it did save fine for me last time

This time I have numbers and tables etc which have GONE (was all text the last time)

Good luck OP. I am sure you'll get it back. You've had great offers of help on here. Accept it!

What's utilities application??

Finder?

Or somewhere in textedit? Or the document?

Sorry anyone I haven't seemed to replied to (I appreciate it, just focusing on fastest route to potential salvation)