AutoSave in Word does not work. How do I set it up right?

Hi

I'm very new to Apple products in general, and especially a novice on my Macbook. I have used PCs for years, to do a lot of writing, and rarely or ever had problems recovering lost work in Word. Since switching though, I am not getting the hang of this, and last night I worked for a long, very focused and productive, while on an article, and then my kid started crying in his bed and I didn't save my work when I got up to tend to him... Didn't get to continue until this evening, but when I opened my Macbook, Word had updated and restarted, and all my work was gone.

- I have the AutoSave file on my local drive. However, Word, apparently, cannot open that file, because the file format does not match the file type.

- I have tried to change the file type it has, .docx, to .tmp, or .adn, but to no avail: I am not in fact able to change the file type. As soon as I change the file extension, I get an error message (an error occured + a code).

- I have sent the file to a PC to see if I could open it there. I can change the file extension there but Word still cannot open the file.

I thought I had solved my auto recovery problem last time recovery was an issue. That time i could not find any autosave files, and discovered that I had to set it up manually in the Word options panel to save such files in a given location. I have been wondering if it is where I save files that is the problem? Does the set up has anything to say?

- I save all my normal files to iCloud, in a specific folder there.

- I save my autosave files locally, however, on the macbook, in a folder I created under Documents.

Does this matter...? In my head it shouldn't - surely it should just mean that every time I explicitly save the document, it will save to the cloud, and every minute word will update the local autosave file. But I am open to any and all suggestions at this point.

I have pretty much given up on recovering last nights work, but how can I set this up to make sure I do not lose work again? I have a deadline, and cannot afford any more lost time.

I'd be very grateful if anyone has any insights to offer 🙂

Thank you!