Microsoft Word saves to the cloud by default

Microsoft recently announced that Word will save to the Cloud by default. This is actually a nice feature for organizations that leverage the Microsoft Office 365 Cloud.

The announcement from Microsoft starts with safety and security, but I see the biggest benefit is that you can save your work anywhere, at any time. I like having my personal files stored locally, where I know where it is. But when I'm at work, that's my company's problem. And for what I do for work, I like that you can just save everything to Microsoft Cloud by default. As Microsoft says in the announcement, "You don’t have to worry about losing your work – creation in the cloud means your document is automatically saved for you as you go."

Here's what happens: When you start working on a new file in Word, and later save it, you'll be told "this file was created in the Cloud" and you'll have an opportunity to rename it or move it.

If you don't want to save your file in the cloud, you can use the drop-down menu to select a new folder or location. At the same time, you can also pin that location to the list as a "preferred" place, or you can make that location the new default location to save your work.

Saving files works basically the same as saving files locally or to a network file share, such as on a shared network drive. It's just that in this case, you're saving your work to the Cloud.

I think it's a good idea to save your work stuff using your work's Microsoft Cloud. But when I'm working at home, using my personal Windows PC in my home office, I don't want to mix my work files with my personal Cloud account. Fortunately, this isn't an all-or-nothing setting. You can turn off the "Save to the Cloud" feature in Settings. The option is right at the top of the "Save" option group:

Saving to the Cloud is a neat feature in Microsoft Word. If you use Word on the desktop, use this to automatically save your work. Saving to the Cloud means you can access your files from any system where you can login to your Cloud account. And that makes it easy to collaborate and keep your files secure.