Changing the Location Where Microsoft Word Files Are Saved

Files in an open file cabinet

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If you frequently save your documents in a different place on your hard drive rather than the My Documents folder, it can get tiresome navigating through the folders on your hard drive in the Save dialog box. Fortunately, the default location where Word saves your files can be easily changed.

How to Change Where Documents are Saved

  1. From the Tools menu select Options.
  2. In the dialog box that appears, click the File Locations tab.
  3. In the box under File Types select the type of file by clicking its name (Word files are Documents).
  4. Click the Modify button.
  5. When the Modify Location dialog box appears, find the folder where you would like Word to store saved documents by navigating through the folders as you would in the Save dialog box.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Click OK in the Options box.
  8. Your changes will be made instantly.

For example, you may wish to save your work-related documents into a folder just for work. In this case, you would first create the folder Work inside the Documents folder. select the folder Documents/Work for your files.

Files created in other Office programs will be saved in the locations specified in their Options. Also, if you want to move previously saved documents to the new location, you must do so manually.

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