Techies: how do I retrieve a .swp file?

[ckissick]

I'll make it brief. I lost an important word file but still have the .swp (swap) file. What's the best way to turn it back into a word file?

[derek murray]

"Sometimes" Word can open *.swp directly... if the file opens, you will have to go hunting for the text among a sea of symbols, characters, etc. If you have a hard copy, scanning and using Object Character Recognition software will also work... but there will be lots of clean-up and re-formatting to do. If you have a PDF file, Adobe Acrobat (not Reader)will convert it directly to Word.

Hopefully someone else will have a better solution.

Good luck.

[stomachmonkey]

Unless .swp's are different under windows vs .nix the swp file only contains changes made during an open editing session.

Meaning, unless this was a brand new file started from scratch the swp won't contain the entire file.

If it was an existing file you opened to edit the swp will only contain the edits.