Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Changing default Save As location in Office 2003

Jun 10, 2005 4:32AM PDT

How do I permanently change the default location to which my documents are saved? Windows 2003 states that the default location is My Documents, but what comes up when I hit the Save As option is a folder named OLK237, which appears to be a folder under Temporary Internet Files. I then have to click the down arrow to get a full list of locations, from which I can select My Documents. In previous versions of Office the default to My Documents worked.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re: changing default Save As location
Jun 10, 2005 7:59AM PDT
http://helpdesk.wisc.edu/page.php?cat=1304&id=977 might help, but I'm afraid it is not what you mean.

If you 'save as' an existing document, the Save As defaults to the folder the file is. So if you open an attachment from an email, it will start with a subfolder of Temporary Internet Files, because that's where Outlook Express stores it before activating word.
The 'file location' method only works for new files, and it's not clear from your post if that's what you are talking about.

But in Office 2003 there should a 'My documents' button in the left side area (it has an official name which I forgot) of the save-dialog, I think, so it's a one click operation to go there.

Hope this helps.


Kees
- Collapse -
Thank you for solving my problem
Jun 10, 2005 11:35AM PDT

Your information is right on target. Thanks very much.

I realized that this is what is happening: I usually begin the day by checking e-mails and almost always save at least one attached Word document. Those documents always default to the Temporary Files folder I mentioned.

Then, after that, I keep Word open and just create new documents from there. That's when the problem I mentioned happens. All the new documents default to that same folder instead of to My Documents.

If I open Word from its icon and then create a new document, it and all future documents I create default to the correct Save As folder.

I was aware that the My Documents option was available on the side of the Save As window. I just wanted to bypass that extra step.

Guess there's no way to get around this situation. Now that I'm aware of why it happens I will be more careful to create documents only after I actually open Word from its icon.