Right ok, first things first I'm not really qualified to use linux but I was given a laptop by a techy friend which has Linux unbuntu installed on it, and have just been using it the way you would with windows or apple or whatever.

I had to write a proposal for work which i did using libre office 3 usually when I go onto to my libre office documents it does this start recovery thing, but just now when I tried to go on it, a box came up with the title ASCII filter options, I clicked ok and the whole thing has compleately disappeared and I can seem to find any way to bring it back.

Of course being the idiot I am I didnt back it up anywhere, I am on the point of having an aneurysm can anyone help please?!!

First, can you find the file in a directory? (I am assuming that you saved it at some point)

Next, open the program again and see what happens. If it offers to recover existing documents, then tell us **exactly** what you see.

If it does not offer document recovery, then look in recent documents.

no document recovery.
What comes up is a box titles ASCII filter options (never seen before today)
it contains the options Character set, default fonts, language and paragraph breaks. none of which make the document reappear, infact if I go to properties it now tells me the document is 0 bytes

An ASCII filter options box usually means that libre office can't figure out what the format of the document is by itself, which is probably a really bad sign if you are trying to open a libre office document.

So, you say that you opened up the properties window for that file, from the file navigation window, and it says that the document is 0 bytes in size? If so, that means you somehow erased all the data in the file, which means that you are officially screwed. Hopefully you have a good memory. :|

If you look in Tools>Options>Paths you should see where temp files are stored. This is where the autorecovery files are.