Default "Save As" location in Microsoft Office on a Mac

Anonymous
2019-02-28T15:24:52+00:00

When I open a file in Microsoft Office on my Mac, I typically do a "Save As" to append a version number to the file name.  However, by default the "Save As" location is NOT the folder where I opened the file (which is typical behavior in Microsoft Office on Windows...and for that matter any other application on the Mac).  Instead, the default folder is the location of the last file I SAVED in Microsoft Office.  This is extremely annoying, not typical or desired behavior, and is both baffling to me as to why it does this or how I can change to the expected behavior (if open file XYZ from folder ABC, the default "Save As" folder should be ABC).  This is literally annoying to the point that I'm ready to just ditch Microsoft Office on a Mac and move to Pages / Numbers / Keynote.  If anyone knows how to change (or why Microsoft is using this approach) please help me...

Mac OS:  Mojave 10.14.3

Microsoft Office for Mac:  Version 16.22

Posting this to Office -> Word -> Mac topic, though the issue happens to be the same across all Office products (Excel and Powerpoint).

Note, I do use OneDrive, though I just work from local directories and let OneDrive sync to the cloud.

Also note, I posted this question to a Mac forum, and everyone insisted this is a Microsoft issue as the setting for the "Save As" dialog are set by the program you are using (and I confirmed in applications like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote the behavior is correct i.e. as desired and done everywhere else...the default "Save As" is the folder where you opened the file).

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2019-11-08T18:28:21+00:00

It appears I MAY have fixed the problem... I just turned off "Files-on-demand" and "File Collaboration" in my OneDrive preferences and "Save As" defaults to the current file's directory instead of the directory that I most recently saved to.

Can anyone else experiencing this problem confirm that this works as a fix?

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John Korchok 236.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2019-10-11T16:00:00+00:00

Rena left out some details. She's referring to the hidden Library folder in your user folder. To open it, hold down the Option key while clicking on the Go menu and choose Library. Look inside the window that opens for the folders she cited.

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-03-05T09:30:19+00:00

    Hi JMSChicago,

    Do you still have this problem? As we can't reproduce the issue, you can check the video I sent and provide us more information below:

    1. Does the issue only happen to file stored in your OneDrive local sync folder?
    2. What's your OneDrive version?

    Thanks,

    Rena

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-05-25T21:49:37+00:00

    Hi JMSChicago,

    Do you still have this problem? As we can't reproduce the issue, you can check the video I sent and provide us more information below:

    1. Does the issue only happen to file stored in your OneDrive local sync folder?
    2. What's your OneDrive version?

    Thanks,

    Rena

    Hi

    Not sure if the OP has, but we certainly have!

    Yes we are using OneDrive sync.

    So if we open a Word file from a particular location - let's say folder AA, modify it and then select Save As, the default location to save the modified file will be the last location used to FILE something - not folder AA.

    A real problem for us, and is resulting in important documents being misfiled!!

    Surely it must be possible to change this default behaviour?

    We use Office 365 on Macs. So we don't have an "Office" button to click on - noticed this suggested elsewhere!!

    Thanks,

    Noel.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-07-17T05:11:09+00:00

    Yes, I tried that.

    No, it didn't work. 

    There is no "File Type" for "Word docs" — only images, user templates, workgroup templates, autorecover, tools, startup.

    Also looked for "options" under the "file" menu — as every web answer says to do. Only there is no "options" under file menu.

    Hmm.

    Weird.

    Almost as if Microsoft is garbage and wants to force people to become dependent on their cloud storage. Nahhhhh

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