Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Saving All Open Documents.

Saving All Open Documents

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated April 30, 2022)

Word allows you to open multiple documents at the same time. You can even view all of these documents at the same time. This makes it very easy to work on several files at once. After a long editing session, it is hard to remember which files you have changed and which you haven't.

One solution to this problem is to add a "save all" command to your Quick Access Toolbar. Follow these steps:

Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 and later versions, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
At the left of the dialog box click Customize (Word 2007) or Quick Access Toolbar (later versions of Word). (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Quick Access Toolbar portion of the Word Options dialog box.

Using the Choose Commands From drop-down list, choose All Commands.
In the list of commands find and select Save All.
Click the Add button. The command moves to the right side of the screen.
Click OK.

Now, whenever you want to save all your open documents, click the Save All tool and the job is done, fast and simple.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (2561) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Saving All Open Documents.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Hiding Table Gridlines, by Default

The edges to table cells are shown two ways in Word: gridlines and borders. Table gridlines are only seen in Word; they ...

Discover More

Using Go To to Jump to a Chart Sheet

Create a chart on its own worksheet, and you can display it by simply clicking the tab at the bottom of the Excel work ...

Discover More

Pictures inside Shapes

Filling one of Excel's drawing shapes with a picture of your choosing is a neat trick. Here's how to do it.

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Read-Only Files

Read-only documents (those that cannot be updated) are part and parcel of working with Word. There are many ways that a ...

Discover More

Using Tags with Document Files

Tags are a way for you to store keywords or metadata with your document files. They can be helpful when you are trying to ...

Discover More

Saving Personalized Copies of a Document

Need a series of documents that include an individual's name or a company name? Here's a handy little macro that will ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is five more than 2?

2022-05-03 22:57:41

Tomek

Beware that sometimes when you open multiple documents they may actually open in separate instances of Word. In such case one instance is not aware of the documents open in other instances. This happens primarily when you open the documents by selecting several of them in File Explorer and then either press enter or right click on one of the selected files and chose Open. In such case SaveAll will only save the documents in the particular instance of Word, but not in the others.

Update: This issue/bug has recently disappeared from my computer, probably as an effect of an update of either Office or Windows (365 Family under Win 10 Pro). I just renewed the subscription to the Office. But it still may exist on some computers that were not updated. the issue was not specific to just this one computer. It was also that way on several computers I used at work with the Enterprise versions of Office and Win10 Pro..

2022-05-03 16:06:35

April Ellis

This is beautiful! Thank you!

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.