Making Save As Display the Save As Dialog Box

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated October 12, 2019)

David notes that in earlier versions of Word, when you selected "Save As" you immediately got the Save As dialog box, which defaulted to the current folder, but allowed you to select a folder and a file type before clicking Save. In the latest versions of Word, after clicking "Save A Copy," you have to click on the "More Options" link after the file type selector (or on the path name above the document name) to get to this dialog box. David wonders if there is any way to have "Save As," once again, directly display the Save As dialog box.

There are a few ways you can go about this. First, you can change how you initiate "Save As." The quickest way to do so is to simply press F12, which fortunately still brings up the classic Save As dialog box. (This is my preferred method of saving the current document under a new name or in a new location.)

You might also try these steps to implement a configuration change:

  1. Display the File tab of the ribbon.
  2. Click Options at the bottom-left side of the screen. Word displays the Word Options dialog box.
  3. At the left side of the dialog box click Save. Word changes the settings available in the dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    4. Figure 1. The Save options in the Word Options dialog box.

  4. Clear the Don't Show the Backstage when Open or Saving Files option.
  5. Select the Save to Computer by Default option.
  6. Click OK.

This should instruct Word to not show any of the areas that David finds problematic, opting instead to show the traditional Save As dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13685) applies to Microsoft Word 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365.

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. ...

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