AutoSave and DOC Files

For compatibility purposes, Mike needs to save his documents in the DOC format rather than DOCX. This causes a problem, though, when he wants to turn on AutoSave. When he tries to do that, Word tells him that he cannot enable AutoSave for DOC files. Mike wonders why that is and if there is a way around it.

What Mike is running into is another example of Microsoft's increasing proclivity to utilize the same term for differing purposes. You see, AutoSave has been around since the earliest days of Word. I published tips about how to use AutoSave way back in January 1998, and that first AutoSave tip was about using AutoSave in Word 6, Word 95, and Word 97. You can see a version of that tip, for those versions of Word, on the old WordTips (menu) website:

https://tips.net/T1009

With the introduction of Word 97, Microsoft changed the name of the feature to AutoRecover, and the feature has remained with that name ever since. (You can access AutoRecover setttings by displaying the Word Options dialog box and clicking on Save at the left side.)

In the version of Word with Office 365 and in Word 2021, Microsoft introduced (in their words) a "new feature" called AutoSave. No doubt people at Microsoft felt that those who have been around for the past 30 years would forget that there used to be a feature called AutoSave, so they felt it was permissible to reuse the long-unused name. Microsoft introduces the "new" feature at their website, here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/6d6bd723-ebfd-4e40-b5f6-ae6e8088f7a5

So, the upshot is that this new incarnation of AutoSave will only work with the latest versions of Word, and then only if the file is saved on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online. Even if you save your document saved in one of those cloud services, if the document isn't in the DOCX format, you cannot use AutoSave.

If your needs don't fit within this very narrow niche, then you should consider creating your own AutoSave function, via macro. You can find some information on how to do that here:

https://tips.net/T157

That tip indicates that one potential drawback of the macro is that it needs to be saved in a macro-enabled workbook. In Mike's situation, though, this isn't a problem since DOC files are always macro-enabled.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (402) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365.