How do I save Office Documents to a Local Computer by Default?
By default, if you’re signed in to Office apps with a Microsoft account, your apps save documents to OneDrive. This encourages you to store your files in the cloud so that you can access them on other synced devices.
Read: How to Create PDF Documents in Microsoft Office
However, there are times when you can instead save office files to your computer. Fortunately, the Office apps let you switch the default save location from OneDrive to your computer. In this guide, we’ll show you how to set up Office 365 to save files locally.
Save Microsoft Office Files to Local Computer By Default
The process for changing the default save location is the same for all Office applications, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Also, if you make one Office application to save files locally, all other applications will automatically start saving files locally on your computer as well.
Here’s how you make this change in Word (which automatically applies to all other Office applications):
Launch Microsoft Word on your computer. Select Options in the left sidebar. If you’re in the Word editing screen, choose File> More> Options.
Select Save in the left sidebar of the Word Options window. Turn on the “Save to computer by default” option in the “Save documents” section on the right.
Save your changes by clicking OK at the bottom of the window.
Your Office apps will now save files to your PC instead of OneDrive.
If you want apps to save files to OneDrive again, deselect Save to Computer by Default in the Word Options window.
Change the Default Save Location in Microsoft Office
After choosing your computer as the default location for saving Office documents, you’ll want to change the default folder where files are saved. This way, you ensure that your documents are saved in the exact folder you want.
Unlike the above method, you will have to manually specify the default save folder for each Office application.
Open the Office application where you want to change the default local save folder. We will open Word. In the left sidebar, select Options.
Select Save from the left sidebar in the Word Options window. Click Browse next to the Default Local File Location field in the right pane.
Navigate to the folder you want to make the default save folder and select it. Click OK at the bottom of the Word Options window to save your settings.
From now on, your Office application will by default save your documents in the specified folder. You can change the default folder as many times as you like.
Only Save Individual Office 365 Documents to Local Computer
If you want to save only certain documents to your local computer and the rest to the cloud, the Office apps have the option to do so. This way, you can choose where to save individual documents in your applications.
To do this in Word:
Open the document in Microsoft Word on your computer. Select the File tab at the top.
Select “Save As” in the sidebar on the left.
In the Other Locations section on the right, select Browse. You can now select a local folder on your computer to store the document.
Let’s say you too often save certain documents locally on your computer, but not often enough for your computer to become the default save destination. In this case, you can pin the Save As button to the Quick Access Toolbar to quickly save individual documents to local storage.
Thus, you just need to click one button on the Quick Access Toolbar to save the file to your computer. Here’s how to pin Save As to the Word toolbar:
Click the down arrow icon at the top of the Word interface and select More Commands.
From the list of options on the left, select Save As. Then select “Add”.
Save your changes by clicking “OK” at the bottom of the window. The Save As option is now docked to the Quick Access Toolbar. Select this option every time you want to save your document locally.
Use the Traditional “Save As†Window to Save Office Documents Locally
Newer versions of Microsoft Office display a modern Save As window. If you’re missing the traditional Explorer-like Save As window and want it to reappear in your Office apps, you can do so using the appropriate option.
Launch the Office application on your computer. We will be using Word. In the left sidebar, select Options.
Select Save in the sidebar to the left of the Word Options window. Turn on Don’t show Backstage when using keyboard shortcuts when opening or saving files.
Click “OK” at the bottom of the window to save your changes.
Try saving your document and now you will see the traditional Save As window where you can choose a folder to save the file to.
Get Office 365 To Save Files Locally on Your Computer
Microsoft’s decision to make OneDrive the default repository for Office documents is great, but not everyone might want to use it. If you prefer to save documents locally on your computer, you can do so in each Office application, as shown above.
We hope this tutorial helps you save offline documents offline.
How do I save Office Documents to Local Computer by Default
How do I save Office Documents to Local Computer by Default