Cannot find .htaccess file

Hi guys

Our server: Debian 5 / ISPConfig3

We very recently took over the hosting of a website and the administrator of that site says she can't find the .htaccess file.

She says that she knows that there is already a .htaccess, because www.domain.com.au/xxxx is being rewritten to point to a certain virtuemart category. She says that she enabled that a while ago, but she does not say when.

When I FTP in to their directory, all I can find is htaccess.txt even when I 'force showing hidden files' in Filezilla.

Any ideas on how could she can access .htaccess? She doesn't want to overwrite the file by copying a new version because she not the only one working on this site, and she doesn't want to overwrite the file if she's unsure she is working on the latest version.

Cheers

Charlton