If you’ve ever felt the impulse to scream “Noooooo!” like Darth Vader at the end of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, but lacked the motivation to do so, may I suggest using Microsoft Word for a critical project?
See, I’ve been trying to work on a summary judgment opposition for more than three weeks now. Thanks to the fact that I’m in a small office and in charge of a large number of files — and effective cleanup batter for everything file the entire office is handling — I’ve not found enough time to complete the task until the night before it’s due. Since I have family obligations (my relative is recovering nicely, as a visit to the hospital tonight proved) I e-mailed the twelfth draft of the opposition, which incorporated edits from my co-counsel in Washington, D.C., here to work on at home.
Here’s the thing. I saved my work as I went — many times. Not quite an hour and a half into the project, all my argument was where I wanted it to be, the internal editing marks were all removed except for areas where I had indicated a need to consult documentary evidence that I don’t have right here in front of me at home. And I saved it, I saved it, I really really did many many times.
So when I finished it and saved the file one last time, and then closed the file so I could e-mail it to myself, I was fully expecting to find it in the “My Documents” folder. Imagine
my panic and anger when it wasn’t there. Imagine how that panic and anger escalated when twenty minutes of searching revealed that it wasn’t anywhere.
All my work — gone. Vanished into the digital ether. I’m so screwed.
