MS Word 2003 - File Menu Overview and Tips – Save File – Part I - Options

Microsoft Word, introduced as the part of Windows 3.11 system about 2 decades ago, is nowadays the most popular text-editing program in the world. Word 2003 has many options which even relatively advanced users are not familiar with. This article is about the commonly used "Save File" procedures – covering several options available and noting some things tha most of you probably did not notice.

As mentioned before, the File Menu is generally divided into 7 main parts:

• New and open
• Saving
• Permissions
• Web Page
• Printing
• Sending and Properties
• Recent files
• Exit Word

Previous article was about the first part (New File, Open File, Close) – now we move on to Save File options.

Besides the first-time save, this procedure is very simple and straightforward. Your latest changes are saved into the file that you are working on, overwriting previous version. Ctrl-S, shortcut icon (diskette), Alf-F -> "S" - both do the trick. If you are saving your piece the first time, you will be presented a window which is similar to "Save as" window (described below). You will need to define file name, type and the directory to store the article in.

This is a far more advanced variation of save that can be also accessed from keyboard by pressing Alt-F -> "A" keys. You have probably been using it to save additional copies of your document – saving the file under a different name or in a different directory. Please, note the "quick access" options on the right – there is a link to several directories: the desktop, your recent documents, the "My documents" folder and "My Network Places".

Also note the easy ways to navigate through your folders. Creating a new folder is also possible right from this window.

Of course you can also select one of your existing files and save under its name, overwriting the old content, but there is more. The saving formats are very important and may deserve a separate article.

Save as WebPage is mostly about formatting, which will be discussed later. However, this save will make your files "destined" for opening by your default internet browser (such as Internet Explorer) and have a HTML-title (which you can change during the save process).

The File Search feature leads you to file search menu on the right of your screen. You can search for files in specified locations that contain certain text. Advanced File Search is also accessible from here, providing you with more control of your search procedure. It must be noted that this feature is not the most useful, so we will not deal with it too long.