MY CARTHow to Save a Document in Word: Video Lesson
This video lesson, titled “Word for Microsoft 365 Tutorial: How to Save Documents in Word,” shows how to save a Word document. This video lesson is from our complete Word tutorial, titled Mastering Word Made Easy™.
Overview:
How to Save a Word Document for the First Time
When you save a Word document for the first time, you must use the “Save As” command to choose where to save the file and what to name it. To do this, click the “File” tab in the Ribbon. Then click the “Save As” command in the command panel at the left side of the backstage view.
How to Select a Save Location
To the right of the command panel, a list of available places to save the file appears. The choices vary, depending on the Office subscriptions and services available to your Microsoft account. If you have previously saved files, the “Recent” option shows a list of folder locations into which you recently saved files. Other common options include your “OneDrive” folder for Microsoft user accounts, SharePoint folders for business Microsoft 365 subscribers, and “This PC.” Select the location to which to save the file.
If you save to a OneDrive or SharePoint folder, you save the file online, which lets you access it from any online computer when signed-in with the same user account. To add additional cloud save locations to which to save files, click the “Add a Place” link in this list. Then click a link to the right for the cloud service location to add.
Then enter your login credentials for the selected cloud service to add any available cloud locations to your list of save locations. Alternatively, if you select the “This PC” choice in the list of save locations, you can save the file to the local computer or local computer network on which you are working.
If signed into Microsoft Office using a Microsoft user account, you can click either the “OneDrive” or “SharePoint” choice to save the file online to either the selected OneDrive or SharePoint folder. If you select “SharePoint,” then select a SharePoint site that appears in the list to the right. Alternatively, you can click the “This PC” option to save the file to your local computer or local network.
How to Navigate the Folders in the Selected Save Location
At that point, for all choices, a list of folders in the selected location appears in the list to the far-right. You can click a folder in this list to select it as the save location. To go back up one level from within the folder you selected, click the “Select to navigate up one level” button, which looks like an upward-pointing arrow, to the left of the current folder’s name at the top of the rightmost panel.
How to Enter the File Name
Then type a file name into the “Enter file name here” field at the top of the rightmost list. File names should be short and descriptive. Word does not let you use the following symbols in a file name: the colon [:], the forward slash [/], the back slash [\], the greater than sign [>], the less than sign [<], the asterisk [*], double quotes [“”], or the pipe symbol [|]. Give the file a memorable name and note into which folder you saved it. People often remember what they named a file but forget into which folder they saved it.
How to Set Save Options and Finish Saving the File
If needed, you can then use the drop-down below that field to select the specific file type to save. If available for your Microsoft 365 account, you can also select a file sensitivity choice from the “File Sensitivity” drop-down. After entering the file name and noting its save location, click the “Save” button to the right of the file type drop-down to finish saving the file.
How to Use the Save As Dialog Box to Save a Word Document
Alternatively, if you prefer to use a Windows “Save As” dialog box to name saved files and select their save locations, either click the “More options…” link under the file type and sensitivity drop-downs at the top of the rightmost folder list or click the “Browse” link in the list of possible save locations.
Doing either action then opens the “Save As” dialog box. In this dialog box, select the folder into which to save the file by using the folder navigation options at either the top or left side of the dialog box. Then enter a file name into the “File name” field. If needed, use the “Save as type” drop-down to select the file type to save. Then click the “Save” button within the “Save As” dialog box to finish saving the file.
How to Save Changes to an Existing Word Document
After initially saving a file, its name then appears in the Title Bar. To save changes you make to locally saved files after that, simply click the “Save” button in the Quick Access toolbar or click the “File” tab in the Ribbon and then click the “Save” command. You will not have to re-enter the file name or select a save location. Word automatically saves the changes to the existing file.
If the file is saved online to OneDrive or SharePoint and “AutoSave” is enabled, then there will not be a “Save” command available in the backstage view, although you can still use the “Save” button in the Quick Access toolbar, if desired.
