Our company has 50 employees - half of which are office users. We run
servers using RAID and do nightly or weekly backups to all users' D: drives
and the servers.

Our I.T. guy insists that everyone continue to use the 'always create
backup' functionality, which clutters all of our folders throughout the
company, and causes confusion with our lesser-experienced computer users.

Is there any value in using the Office backup functionality in our case?
What do other small businesses do?

Thanks in advance!

Hi Engr,

Can you explain a bit on how the backup files are confusing to users?
The backups are stored in the same folder as the document (because of the way that Word/Excel create files and names them) but the
backup documents are not normally displayed in the file Open/Save dialog list unless the users are using the 'All files *.*' choice
in 'Files of Type'.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827099/en-us?FR=1

As to the value, here are some 'same day' uses, that would not necessarily be helped by having an overnight backup (and with the
overnight backup how easily and quickly be able to get an old version sent back to them?)

1. Being able to 'go back'/undo when you find you saved a document with a change you didn't mean to make, right after you clicked
'save' or needing to get a file back right after you clicked 'delete' and realized it was the wrong one you deleted.

2. Reduced loss of work when you find that you can't reopen the document you worked on (it happens and of course only on really
important documents that you need 'right now' <g>) by having a 2nd chance/backup document to reopen that may be only minutes older
(especially if folks are in the habit of saving often as they work).

3. Finding out you saved a new document on top of (same name) of another document by mistake.

My guess is that your IT guy has had more than one call from a user in a panic to get an important file back that fits one of those
scenarios when there wasnt' a backup :)

You didn't mention the version of Office you're using, but it would seem that if you're using RAID servers it would seem that it
would take a lot of files to be a significant impact on the overall storage useage for that one additional copy of the documents :)
..

There are document management systems available, including Microsoft Office Sharepoint that are used to manage the documents and use
a check out/check in ability to manage documents and preclude some losses and you could have a script or macro solution that
copies/moves backup files to a different location as part of the overnight processing.

==================
<<"SoCalMfgEngr" <SoCalMfgEngr@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:ED522378-51D5-42C3-B00A-23735B68E220@microsoft.com...
Our company has 50 employees - half of which are office users. We run
servers using RAID and do nightly or weekly backups to all users' D: drives
and the servers.

Our I.T. guy insists that everyone continue to use the 'always create
backup' functionality, which clutters all of our folders throughout the
company, and causes confusion with our lesser-experienced computer users.

Is there any value in using the Office backup functionality in our case?
What do other small businesses do?

Thanks in advance!>>
--

Bob Buckland ?:-)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Bob,

Thank you for your response. Our company runs Office 2003, and the backup
files are confusing because all employees, both office and on the production
floor, use Windows Explorer to browse for files. In production, we have
non-native English speakers and people with little computer aptitude. Since
we are a small company, it is most cost effective to have the users browsing
for files, as opposed to using Sharepoint, an intranet, or homegrown apps and
front-ends, etc.. Most of the time, all users find the Word, Excel and PDF
files they need without issue. But the problem is that sometimes users open
the .wbk instead of the .doc and there are differences. If every single file
had backups, then it wouldn't matter so much, but often our backups do not
match the .doc file. Since some of these files were last edited months or
years ago, when our 'always create backup' options were different, or the
option was enabled/disabled by different content authors. These files are
Engineering drawings and specifications, so if work is performed on the
production floor to an outdated/superceeded document, we will ship bad
product to our customers. We nearly had this happen twice in the last month,
so the consequences could be much more severe than losing a few hours of
work. Also, many of these documents only receive minor changes once a year
or so.

We could try to train our hourly employees better on what files and folders
are, what file-types are, how to sort by header in Windows Explorer, etc, but
given their aptitude level, this may not prevent further problems.

Also, the backups are confusing to us in Engineering as well. And when you
do a search in Windows Explorer, you get duplicate or conflicting results,
etc.. If Microsoft would allow us to specify a location for the backups,
that would be a different story, but they seriously cause confusion and
effect our business negatively. That is why I am wondering what other small
manufacturing businesses do; use 'always create backup' or no?


"Bob Buckland ?:-)" wrote:

> Hi Engr,
>
> Can you explain a bit on how the backup files are confusing to users?
> The backups are stored in the same folder as the document (because of the way that Word/Excel create files and names them) but the
> backup documents are not normally displayed in the file Open/Save dialog list unless the users are using the 'All files *.*' choice
> in 'Files of Type'.
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827099/en-us?FR=1
>
> As to the value, here are some 'same day' uses, that would not necessarily be helped by having an overnight backup (and with the
> overnight backup how easily and quickly be able to get an old version sent back to them?)
>
> 1. Being able to 'go back'/undo when you find you saved a document with a change you didn't mean to make, right after you clicked
> 'save' or needing to get a file back right after you clicked 'delete' and realized it was the wrong one you deleted.
>
> 2. Reduced loss of work when you find that you can't reopen the document you worked on (it happens and of course only on really
> important documents that you need 'right now' <g>) by having a 2nd chance/backup document to reopen that may be only minutes older
> (especially if folks are in the habit of saving often as they work).
>
> 3. Finding out you saved a new document on top of (same name) of another document by mistake.
>
> My guess is that your IT guy has had more than one call from a user in a panic to get an important file back that fits one of those
> scenarios when there wasnt' a backup :)
>
> You didn't mention the version of Office you're using, but it would seem that if you're using RAID servers it would seem that it
> would take a lot of files to be a significant impact on the overall storage useage for that one additional copy of the documents :)
> ..
>
> There are document management systems available, including Microsoft Office Sharepoint that are used to manage the documents and use
> a check out/check in ability to manage documents and preclude some losses and you could have a script or macro solution that
> copies/moves backup files to a different location as part of the overnight processing.
>
> ==================
> <<"SoCalMfgEngr" <SoCalMfgEngr@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:ED522378-51D5-42C3-B00A-23735B68E220@microsoft.com...
> Our company has 50 employees - half of which are office users. We run
> servers using RAID and do nightly or weekly backups to all users' D: drives
> and the servers.
>
> Our I.T. guy insists that everyone continue to use the 'always create
> backup' functionality, which clutters all of our folders throughout the
> company, and causes confusion with our lesser-experienced computer users.
>
> Is there any value in using the Office backup functionality in our case?
> What do other small businesses do?
>
> Thanks in advance!>>
> --
>
> Bob Buckland ?:-)
> MS Office System Products MVP
>
> *Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
>
>
>