How do I download documents from Word online to my desktop?

Anonymous
2023-11-29T12:36:44+00:00

Hello,

I'm trying to get students to submit work as Word documents (I need to be able to cut/paste things from the documents because of an activity). Neither they nor I can download or upload their documents as Word documents. When they try to upload them to our LMS, they appear as pdfs. When they email me the link to their documents, I can view them online, but I can't save them to my computer with the rest of the class's documents. When I try to download them, it simply opens the file again in another browser tab. There is nothing in my browser's downloads, so it's not even attempting to download the file.

How can I either direct the student to upload their file as a workable Word document or download their documents as Word documents so I can manipulate them and save them?

I've seen a lot of questions about this but no actual answers. There was a mention of Onedrive in one response, but I don't use Onedrive at all because it interferes with my Dropbox. I just want to download the file, not save it to another online cloud like Onedrive.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For education | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-12-03T20:42:14+00:00

    Well I apologise for insulting your. I will leave now.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-12-18T18:11:16+00:00

    As I stated, this does not work. I've tried it about 50 times with 3 different documents on two different computers at this point. It does not work. It simply opens in another browser tab and nothing actually downloads.

    I am having the exact same issue. I have a Word document open in One Drive and I go to File < Save As< Download a Copy to Your Computer. It will then open a dialog box that says. "Planning to share this document? Instead of downloading a copy, try emailing a link." It then gives the option of clicking "Download a Copy" "Email a Link" or "Close". I select "Download a Copy". The screen then opens to the main One Drive Directory, then opens Word and then opens a second copy of the document I am trying to save on my computer hard drive. Like the original poster has also done, I have tried this repeatedly on different documents and it is not working. I was able to get it to work the other day, doing the exact same steps, but now it is no longer allowing me to download a copy to my computer no matter which document I choose. This needs to be fixed ASAP. I am now having to switch over to Google Drive to be able to continue to work on my documents. I miss having MS Word installed directly on my PC.

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  3. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-12-19T00:52:58+00:00

    Lightyr,

    As a workaround, close the document and download it from your OneDrive folder (https://onedrive.live.com) instead.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-12-19T03:00:58+00:00

    As stated in my original post, I avoid Onedrive at all costs. Mine is completely disabled.

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  5. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-12-19T12:41:41+00:00

    The students who are submitting their files as PDFs are probably using Word Online, which creates a PDF for print and perhaps also for sharing. Unless they have the desktop version of Word, they may not be able to create a .doc or .docx file.

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