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
    2019-08-14T08:34:21+00:00

    Totally agree - but it looks like no one is planning to change the behaviour of Office on Mac anytime soon!

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-08-14T21:57:51+00:00

    Hi Joseph and Noelok,

    We just can’t reproduce the same behavior. Have you tried to remove the folders that I mentioned in my previous reply?

    1. move the file to the desktop: ~Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word.plist.

    2. move the file to the desktop: ~Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Office.plist.

    3. move the folder to the desktop: ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.word

    Then re-launch your Word app to see the result. If the steps above don’t fix the issue, that means the issue is not caused by these files. You can move them back to their original locations.

    If the issue persists, please kindly provide us the information below for our further investigation:

    1.       Please provide us the client version information. You can go to Word > About Word to check that.

    2.       Please provide us the OS version.

    3.       Does the issue occur to any files saved in any locations?

    4.       Where does the save as location point to? Does it always point to a specific location?

    Thanks,

    Rena

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-08-14T22:12:47+00:00

    I will try this when I am next in front of my Mac.  I note, however, that there is absolutely no chance that this problem is related to particular files.  It is a universal issue with all files and has been for years across multiple versions of the OS, multiple Macs, and multiple versions of Word (presumably, as Word keeps getting updated).  

    It is possible that the issue relates to files on OneDrive.  I will test that as all of my Word files are on OneDrive (albeit synced and stored locally).

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