Word 2007[c] The Missing Manual

17.5. Customizing the Save Documents Settings

The Word Options box has several options that affect the way Word saves your documents. For example, suppose you want to always save your document in the older Word file format .doc. Make the change here, and you won't have to change Word's setting every time you save a document. You don't have many options, but some of them are on the computer-geek technical edge of things. To see the Save settings option, go to Office button Word Options Save button. You see three groups of settings:

• Save documents lets you change the file format and the location in which Word saves your documents.

• Offline editing options for document management server files adjusts Share-Point settings if you're working with colleagues on a SharePoint site.

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  Note: For more details on SharePoint, look to Essential SharePoint and SharePoint Office Pocket Guide , both by Jeff Webb.

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• Preserve fidelity when sharing this document gives you a way to make sure your document looks the same on other people's computers as it does on yours. Sounds geekier than it really is.

Here's a brief rundown of the settings for each of the three groups.

17.5.1. Save Document Options

Use the first setting "Save files in this format" to choose the file format you want to use most of the time. You can always override this option when you do a Save As (Office button Save As). The available file formats include:

• .docx . New format for most Word documents.

• .docm . New format for Word documents containing macros. (Microsoft is making an effort to increase computer security by reining in Office macros; see Section 18.2.6.)

• .dotx , New format for Word templates.

• .dotm . New format for templates containing macros.

• .doc . Format for all files created in earlier versions of Word, including Word 6.0, Word 95, and Word 97-2003.

• .dot . Format for legacy Word templates.

• .pdf . Adobe Reader (also known as Acrobat) files. (Available as an add-in; see the box in Section 7.3.2.)

• .xps . XML Paper specification (Microsoft's answer to PDF). (Available as an add-in.)

• .mht, .mhtml . Single file Web pagein other words, all the files that make up a Web page contained in one single file.

• .htm. .html . Standard Web page format. This format is like the Web pages you see on the Internet; if the page includes photos or other files, links on the page point to those external files.

• .rtf . Rich Text Format, a file format used to exchange files with other word processors and other types of computers like Macs and Linux computers.

• .txt . A text file format that does not include extensive formatting.

• .xml . eXtensible Markup Language, a standard language for describing many different types of data.

• .wps . The old Microsoft Works format.

17.5.1.1. AutoRecover options

Word can automatically save your document at specific intervals. Just turn on the checkbox, and then type a number of minutes in the "Save AutoRecover information every minutes" box.

In the "AutoRecover file location" box, type the location where you want to store the temporary AutoRecover files. Word's factory setting ( C:\Documents and Settings\[ user name ]\Application Data\Microsoft\Word ) should work fine for most computer setups. If you need to select a new location, click the Browse button, and then navigate to a new folder.

17.5.1.2. Default file location

When you have a new document and click that Save button, how does Word choose a folder to save it in? It uses the folder listed in the "Default file location" box. You can save a lot of time and folder navigation gymnastics by setting this option to match the way you work. Microsoft's factory setting for this is your My Documents folder. That's not a bad choice, but if you have a folder where you keep most of your Word documents, click Browse, and then select that folder. If all your work for the next three months is going to go into a single project folder, you may want to change to that folder for the time being.

17.5.2. Offline Editing Options

If you collaborate with others using a SharePoint network site, these settings may interest you. If you're not a SharePoint collaborator, you can skip this section. SharePoint is Microsoft's network technology developed to help people share the same files and workspace. When you use a shared file, you check it out like you'd check a book out of the library. Others can't make changes to the file you've checked out. When you check it back in, you may add comments to explain how you've changed the file.

Word has to store temporary files while you're working on a document you've checked out. The settings in this group determine where Word saves the file while you're working on it. The factory setting for "Save checked out documents to" is "The server drafts location on this computer." That should work fine for most computer and network setups. If you want to change the location, click "The Web server" button, and then click Browse to designate a new location.

17.5.3. Embedded Font Options

The wonderfully named "Preserve fidelity when sharing this document" option is easier to figure out than it sounds. Here's the scoop: When you create a document and format the text, you're using fonts stored on your computer. Those fonts create the shapes of the letters and, as you know, those shapes vary a lot. For example, just compare the Arial and Algerian fonts (Figure 17-10). If you share the file with someone who doesn't have the Algerian font installed, Word just makes a best guess and chooses some other font to display the text. That's not always a good thing: If you're creating an ad or a poster for a concert, the look of the type is critical to the feeling of the piece.

To make sure that everyone sees your document with the right fonts, Word lets you embed that is, storethe fonts in the document file. Yes, this makes the file bigger, but it's an invaluable option when you really need it. Go to Office button Word Options Save button. The bottom section of this window is where you make choices for embedded fonts. First, use the drop-down menu to choose whether youre changing the setting for a single document or for All New Documents.

Turn on the "Embed fonts in the file" checkbox, and two more options come to life. If you want to reduce the file size , turn on both of them:

• Embed only the characters used in the document (best for reducing file size) . This option is fine if the person you're sharing the file with is just going to read it and not make changes. (Leave it turned off if the person is going to edit the document.)

• Do not embed common system fonts . Some fonts, such as Arial or Times New Roman, are already installed on just about every Windows computer in the world. Turning on this box reduces file size by not embedding fonts other people are almost certain to have.