Automatically Saving Versions

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 24, 2021)

As you pass a document file around to other people to work on, you may want Word to automatically save a version of your document every time it is closed. This is easy to do by following these steps:

Choose Versions from the file menu. Word displays the Versions dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Versions dialog box.

Make sure the Automatically Save a Version On Close check box is selected.
Click on Close to dismiss the Versions dialog box.

Remember that Word saves a version every time the file is closed. Thus, if the document is worked on in a lot of small sessions, it is very easy for the document to get very large very fast. To overcome this problem, make sure you review the versions periodically and delete those you no longer need. (Deleting a version is covered in a different tip.)

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1852) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Hiding Spelling Errors

When you are typing in a document, Word normally checks your spelling in the background, marking possible spelling errors ...

Discover More

Moving Section Breaks

Section breaks are used to divide a document into two or more sections that can be independently formatting. If you want ...

Discover More

Using a Portion of a Document's Filename in a Header

Headers and footers add a nice finishing touch to a document you plan on printing. You may want all sorts of information ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Changing Label Printing Order

If you want to change the order in which labels are printed when doing a mail merge, Word doesn't provide many options. ...

Discover More

Automatic Sound Clips

Want to add some sound to your documents? It's easy. What isn't so easy is configuring a sound clip to play whenever a ...

Discover More

Creating Labels

Using Word to create and print labels is a snap. All you need to do is provide the text you want on the labels, pick a ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is six minus 5?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.