Microsoft Word 2010, just like previous versions, autosaves copies of your Word document periodically. The settings that control the autosave function can be found if you click the Office Button > Word > Options > Save. Here, you can specify the following AutoSave related options:

• in what format copies are saved.
• how frequently to autosave.
• whether to keep the last auto recovered file if closed without saving.
• AutoRecover file location.

There are also a few other options here, that are not related to autosaving.

In addition to actually performing the autosaves, Word 2010 makes them visible in backstage view. Click on the Office Button and you’ll be able to see them in the Versions section. If you click on the link for any autosaved version you can view, compare and restore it.

Additionally, here’s a feature for all those people who regularly close documents without saving their changes. All is not lost if you do this, because the next time you open Word you’ll see the last autosaved version of the document at the top of your recent documents list (Office Button > Recent). Click on that and you can start editing it – and save it!

Read more about AutoSave in Word 2010.