How to Save a Word Document? 3 Useful Ways
Note: (This guide on how to save a word document is suitable for all Microsoft Word versions, including Office 365)
Saving your file/document is an important feature in almost every application. This feature is very helpful when you cannot complete a stipulated task in one go. Also, you would need to save your file when you share it with others. Saving your file prevents loss of data due to software crashes, power outages, or even, accidental closing of the application.
Saving a Word document is pretty simple and it can be done in a variety of ways. In this article, I will tell you how to save a Word document in 4 easy ways.
You’ll Learn:
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4 Different to Save a Word Document
There are multiple ways to save a word document. Each method has its own steps, accessibilities, features, and functionalities.
Let us now see the different methods to save a word document in detail.
From the File Main Menu Ribbon
This is one of the most well-known methods to save a Word document ever since Word was launched.
- Open the Word document which you want to save.
- Click on the File in the main menu ribbon. This opens the backstage view which contains all the additional options relating to the document.
- In the left pane of the File window, click on Save.
- This eventually takes you to the Save As pane.
Note: The functionalities of Save and Save As options are alike. Save is commonly used when saving a file for the first time or overwriting the existing file. The Save As option is used to create copies, and change the location or format of the file.
- In the Save As pane, choose the folder to which you want to save, name the file, and choose the file format.
- For additional saving options relating to the location and format, click on Browse or More Options.
- Finally, click on Save.
This saves your Word document in the selected folder under the given file name.
By Using the Keyboard Shortcut
Shortcut keys are another easy way to help you save a Word document when clicking and navigating to Save options seems like a multi-step task.
- Once you have curated your Word document, just press the keys Ctrl+S.
- This opens the Save As dialog box. You can then rename the file and choose the location to save the document.
For additional options, click on More Options which takes you to the File menu backstage view. From there, you can access a variety of save options relating to the Word file.
Using the Quick Access Toolbar
The Quick Access Toolbar provides a single-click solution to a variety of options in Word. You can add a variety of buttons to the Quick Access Toolbar which you’ll be using often.
- Let us first enable the Quick Access Toolbar. Click on the Ribbon Display Options which can be seen as a small dropdown arrow. From the dropdown, click on Show Quick Access Toolbar.
- Once the Quick Access Toolbar is enabled, click on the dropdown from Customize Quick Access Toolbar, which can be seen as a small dropdown arrow in the left corner of the toolbar, and select More Commands.
- This in turn opens the Excel options dialog box. Click on the dropdown from choose commands and select All Commands.
- Now, scroll down and choose the options you want to add to the Quick Access Toolbar. In this case, let us add the Save button.
- Once you click on Add, you can see the chosen button move to the right side of the pane.
- Finally, click OK.
- Now, you can see the selected buttons in the Quick Access Toolbar.
When you want to save your Word document, you can just click on the Save button to open the Save As dialog box, without having to navigate through the File, Save, or Save As options.
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Save Your Word Document as a PDF
Word documents can be converted into other file formats such as PDF using any additional third-party software or websites. However, you can just save the current word document you are working on into a PDF file without having to leave Word.
- To save the Word document as PDF, first, navigate to File.
- Click on Export in the left pane of the File window.
- This opens the Export pane towards the right of the file window.
- To export the Word document to a PDF file, click on Create PDF/XPS Document button. Now, click on Create PDF/XPS.
- This opens the Publish As PDF or XPS dialog box. In the dialog box, choose the file location, rename the file, and from the Save As type dropdown choose the file format and click on Save.
- This saves your current word document as a PDF file.
AutoSave Feature in Word
Even though there are a variety of ways to save a Word document, sometimes even they might not be enough to save your document at appropriate times. To overcome this, Word has a feature called AutoSave.
The AutoSave feature automatically saves your Word document at regular intervals of time so you don’t have to worry about losing your progress again.
The Autosave feature only works on the document uploaded to the cloud and not when the files are on your local storage.
By default, the feature will be automatically enabled when uploaded to the cloud. Else, you can use the toggle ON/OFF button in the title bar in the top left corner to enable or disable the AutoSave feature.
For additional customizations relating to the AutoSave feature, go to the File main menu and click on the Options button. Word opens the Word Options dialog box. Under the Save category, you can see the options relating to the AutoSave feature.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the shortcut to saving a Word document?
Using the keyboard shortcut keys is the easiest way to save a Word document. When you want to save the word document, click on Ctrl+S. This opens the Save As dialog box, from where you can save the document. And, going forward you can just press Ctrl+S to overwrite the document.
How do I save the document as PDF from the Save As dialog box?
Navigate to File and click on Save. Again, click on Browse or More Options. This opens the Save As dialog box. Specify the name and the location of the Word document. Now, click on the dropdown from Save Ss type and select the format of your choice(PDF).
Closing Thoughts
Remembering to save your word document is integral when working on important documents. Though it might be a couple of additional steps, Saving is always better than losing the files along with all your hard-working efforts.
In this article, we saw how to save a word document in 4 easy ways. You can save them from the File main menu, using keyboard shortcuts, using the Quick Access Toolbar, exporting them as PDF, and even enabling AutoSave in Word to save the documents. Choose the one that suits your purpose the best.
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Simon Sez IT has been teaching Excel and other business software for over ten years. For a low monthly fee, you can get access to 150+ IT training courses.
Simon Calder
Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!
