I'm trying to discipline myself to make turning it off the first action when opening a document - it's often hidden away beneath the first layer of the quick action toolbar so doesn't jump out and bite me up front. My wish is that - at the very least - the default for Autosave could be Off rather than On - maybe it can be but I can't find how to make it so. I'd like to go back to just 'do you want to save changes?'.Įither way, it adds unnecessary time and stress to what was previously a quick, straightforward process. It's quite tricky - the 'what do you want to do' window that Microsoft puts up when you row back is ambiguous to my eye. I then find that Autosave has overwritten the original and I have to go into version history to get back to the original then restore it (if I have forgotten to turn Autosave off right at the start) having saved the 'new' version under a different document name as usual. I should explain that I make my living as a writer (often on horseback) so I don't work with templates but rather, I tend to reversion or modify an existing article for a different application (online, press release, website etc.). I guess I'll have to learn how to use it now then per your advice. You will not get a different answer elsewhere. If you are getting automatic saves overwriting your document, something other than Word, itself, is in action. See Automatically backup Word documents for more on this.

Turning these on or off will not change what you are apparently seeing.

It can also save a recoverable version if Word is ended without your work being saved. It can save a backup every time you save your document.

Word does NOT have an autosave feature that overwrites your existing document. You may want to start here:īasic Concepts of Microsoft Word - from Shauna Kelly If you've been using Word for years, it is about time you learned to use it. When saved, it will not overwrite your document. With a template, Word automatically creates a new document, based on the template, for you to use. Your 'base document' should be a Word template rather than a document. Here's another person riding in on a high horse.

How to turn on autosave in word 2013