Saving Changes when Closing

Summary: If you write a macro that makes changes to a document, you may want that macro to save those changes. There are several ways you can implement the proper code to do this, as described in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

If you modify a Word document, and then close the document, you are asked if you want to save your changes. This is a good feature that helps ensure you don't mistakenly throw away some of your work.

When running a macro, however, you may not want to be bothered with a dialog box asking if you want to save your changes. If the macro modifies a document in some way, and you use the Close method, you are asked if you want to save your changes, just as you are if you manually close a document without saving.

The way to get around this is to use some of the parameters available with the close method. Consider the following:

ActiveDocument.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
ActiveDocument.Close SaveChanges:=wdSaveChanges

Both lines of code close the active document. The difference between the lines is in the setting of the SaveChanges parameter. In the case of the first line, any changes will be discarded, while the second line results in the document being saved when it is closed. If you prefer to be asked every time, just use either of the following lines:

ActiveDocument.Close
ActiveDocument.Close SaveChanges:=wdPromptToSaveChanges

Tip #1301 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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Saving Changes when Closing