This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
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).
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
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?
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.
Hi Joseph,
Thanks for the response. I can understand why you think this is a behavior that needs to be changed, because as far as I known, it has been happening to multiple users for a long time. However, as I have different behavior than yours, that's why I can't say it works like that by default. And that's why I reply here and want to help you narrow down the case as an issue instead of a bug or by design behavior.
I appreciate your help to follow my suggestions to check the result. You can post back anytime once you get any updates. I will keep monitoring this thread for you.
Best Regards,
Rena
Hi Bryan,
When you remove those files, the behavior is changed. It seems the save as location is affected by those files. I would suggest you remove them again to the desktop, and refer to John’s suggestion to click “On my Mac” button, then check whether it shows the correct local location for you.
Thanks,
Rena
That's the whole POINT. I don't want to have to click any buttons. It should automatically select as the default the initial "Save As" location as the folder in which the original document resides, not some online location, nor the "last save" folder destination.
This completely breaks the way that MS Word/Excel have worked since the 1990s. I have used Word since it was first introduced to the market as part of Windows 3.1. This is ridiculous. Saving a document now requires 3 clicks to save it to the destination where 90% of people will want to save it. Before simple typing cmd opt s would pop up a dialog and the initial destination would be the folder in which the open document resides. Now that dialog box shows the folder in which a document (*any* document) was last saved. This makes no sense and is user-hostile.
Hi Bryan,
Sorry for the inconvenience. But I still can’t reproduce the same problem. If you have tried removing the plist file and com.microsoft.word folder but the issue persists, I would suggest you follow thearticle to do a completely uninstall and reinstall to see the result.
Regards,
Rena