How To Set Up Word/Excel AutoSave Without OneDrive

Overview

I was working on a Word document and stepped away from my computer, and when I came back hours later, I saw that my Word document had not been automatically saved. Incredibly, Word (and Excel) will only AutoSave to Microsoft OneDrive or SharePoint. Despite displaying a large AutoSave button in the upper-left corner, Microsoft has chosen to cripple Word and Excel for locally saved files to force customers to use their OneDrive service. Pretty cheesy, Microsoft!

Instead, Microsoft offers AutoRecover. AutoRecover provides a foundation for recovering a document in the event of a system crash, but it is somewhat hit or miss. I do not want to rely on AutoRecover to protect me from possible data loss. I save my files locally and I already have adequate backup procedures in place. I do not want to save my files to OneDrive.

In this article, I will go over how to save files to a local computer by default, how to change the default save location, and how to set up Word and Excel to automatically save to a local location.

How To Save Files Locally

The process of changing Word to save files to a local PC instead of Onedrive by default is very similar for both Word and Excel. I will only show you how to do it in Word.

1. Launch Microsoft Word on your computer.
2. Select Options from the left sidebar. If you are editing a document, select File then Options instead.
3. In the Word Options window, choose Save from the sidebar.

4. Check the Save to Computer by default option in the Save documents section on the right.
5. Uncheck the AutoSave files stored in the Cloud by default in Word to turn off AutoSave to OneDrive
6. Set the Auto Recovery settings if desired.

Word will now save files to your computer instead of OneDrive by default.

How To Change The Default Save Location

Although you can always override the save location when creating a Word or Excel file, you may want to change the default save folder. The process to change the default save location is very similar to how to save files to a local PC. Again, I will show you in Word.

1. Launch Microsoft Word on your computer.
2. Select Options from the left sidebar. If you are editing a document, select File then Options instead.
3. Select Save in the sidebar from the Word Options window.

4. Browse to or type the desired default location for the app into the Default local file location: field.
   Note: On my system Word has a browse button but Excel does not.

By default, Word and/or Excel will now save your documents in the folder you specify.

Automatically Save Word Documents

Install Add-Ins

To automatically save files to a local location in Word and Excel, we need to use add-ins. From Graham Mayor’s website, download the Word and/or Excel autosave add-ins. There are two files in each zip file: a self-extracting .exe file and the add-in file (.dotm for Word, .xlam for Excel).

The add-in must be placed in the add-in folder.

The default location of the add-in folder for Word is:

C:\Users\[User name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP

The default location of the add-in folder for Excel is:

C:\Users\[User name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\Addin

Close Word or Excel, unzip the downloaded file, and do ONE of the following:

• Run the self-extracting file and let it extract the add-in to the add-in folder. (Note, it took about 20 seconds on my PC before I saw the first screen)

• Manually copy the add-in file to the add-in folder

In Excel, there is an additional step to activate the add-in:

1. Launch Microsoft Excel on your computer.
2. Select Options from the left sidebar.
3. In the Excel Options window, select Add-ins from the sidebar.
4. In the Manage box, select Excel Add-ins and click Go.
5. Select the SaveReminder add-in and click OK.

Using The Add-In

If this is the first add-in you have set up, a new Add-ins menu item will appear in the main menu bar of Word or Excel. Click Save Reminder Options, to open the settings for the add-in. You can use the drop-down button and select an interval number or type a number between 1 and 99 to determine how often the add-in should run. To set the add-in to save files automatically without notifying you, select the Save automatically, without prompting check box.

Summary

Microsoft has chosen to cripple Word and Excel by forcing customers to either use their OneDrive service or go without autosaving files. However, if you want to set up Word or Excel to autosave, an add-in can provide the missing functionality. Microsoft should allow autosaving to any file location, not just OneDrive or Sharepoint. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.

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