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
    2019-09-10T15:56:32+00:00

    Hi Noelok,

    Thanks for your report as well. Please first check the suggests I mentioned above to Ac315. You can also try them first and see the result.

    If the issue persists, can you also provide us the information as well:

    1.    client version information. You can go to Word > About Word to check that.

    2.    OS version and OneDrive version.

    Regards,

    Rena

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-09-12T21:11:40+00:00

    I have the same problem--always has since I have been using OneDrive on Mac. There seems to be miscommunication about the problem and the solution you are giving seems to be missing the point. I believe the Mac default is to save to the last SAVE location. Instead of the last SAVE location, we want "save as" to default to the current folder--the folder of the file we are working on.

    To see if you can reproduce this problem, Rena, you will need to try saving in two different locations within OneDrive (local storage linked to the cloud).

    Open a file and save it to a folder (any folder--let's say Folder A).

    Then close that file and go to a different folder in OneDrive and open a file from the second folder (let's say Folder B).

    Then select SAVE AS on the file opened from Folder B. What is the default save location? If it is folder B--where it should be--then your system works differently than mine and I don't know what to say. The default save location for OneDrive on Mac has been the last save location consistently for me across three different machines and after OneDrive has been reloaded multiple times.

    Does that add anything to this discussion or is our system working differently than yours?

    Chris

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-09-15T07:58:02+00:00

    Hi Chris,

    Thanks for your clarification. I tested again with the same steps you required. But I still have no issue. You can see my reproduce video. I tested in Mojave 10.14.6, Office 16.29 (The latest production version) and OneDrive 19.163.0818.0004 (The latest insiders ring):

    https://1drv.ms/v/s!AoZSNBiDPuHNnmXxSiHHSWwDySQ_?e=sNEdCE

    In this scenario, I assume you can first try my suggestions above:

    Updating the Office to the latest version 16.29.

    In the meantime, have you tried removing the items below:

    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.

    You can also provide us the OS version/Office version/OneDrive version if the issue persists.

    Regards,

    Rena

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