Autosave is driving me bonkers - every time I repurpose a base document it automatically overwrites it unless I remember to turn off Autosave (which seems to default to On) before I get started. Yes I know I can step back through multiple versions but that's a real pain and is not good for my hypertension. Please Microsoft - give us the ability to disable Autosave at system level. Or if you can't do that, at least have it defaulting to Off not On. And please do this now!

Word 2016 doesn't have an Autosave feature, so you can't turn it off. What is does have is an Auto-recover save but even that does not overwrite your original file - it makes a temporary backup of the edited copy.

Kindly also read the notice at the foot of every page on this site.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Please dismount your high horse and consider answering my question: - how do I disable it? And if I can't, will Microsoft add this capability? You might be an expert in using it but I'm just bloke who's used Word for donkey's years and this 'feature' has suddenly made doing my job much harder.

My apologies - I now understand what you mean by look at the bottom of the page! Would you kindly point me at where I can have a go directly at Microsoft please?!

Here's another person riding in on a high horse...
Your "base document" should be a Word template rather than a document.

With a template, Word automatically creates a new document, based on the template, for you to use. When saved, it will not overwrite your document. Templates in Microsoft Word

If you've been using Word for years, it is about time you learned to use it. You may want to start here:
Basic Concepts of Microsoft Word - from Shauna Kelly

[With the exception of Office 365 being used online,] Word does NOT have an autosave feature that overwrites your existing document. It can save a backup every time you save your document. It can also save a recoverable version if Word is ended without your work being saved. Turning these on or off will not change what you are apparently seeing.

See Automatically backup Word documents for more on this. If you are getting automatic saves overwriting your document, something other than Word, itself, is in action.

You will not get a different answer elsewhere.

Again, you will not get a different answer elsewhere. However, if you want to post in a forum that is affiliated with Microsoft, you can post here. If you do, please put a note there and here about it being a cross-post. For cross-posting etiquette, please read: http://www.excelguru.ca/content.php?184

I, and Paul, assumed that you are using Word on a computer, rather than in an online version. Word 365 online does have an AutoSave that can be turned off in a particular document. See https://support.office.com/en-us/art...6-ae6e8088f7a5

This only applies to documents being stored on OneDrive and Sharepoint. It does not apply to the non-subscription version of Office 2016.
I do not use Office 365, I do not know, but suspect that Paul does not, either. In my opinion, it is not a finished product. Others certainly find it useful.

Thanks, Charles. I guess I'll have to learn how to use it now then per your advice. I should explain that I make my living as a writer (often on horseback) so I don't work with templates but rather, I tend to reversion or modify an existing article for a different application (online, press release, website etc.). I then find that Autosave has overwritten the original and I have to go into version history to get back to the original then restore it (if I have forgotten to turn Autosave off right at the start) having saved the 'new' version under a different document name as usual. It's quite tricky - the 'what do you want to do' window that Microsoft puts up when you row back is ambiguous to my eye. I'd like to go back to just 'do you want to save changes?'.

Either way, it adds unnecessary time and stress to what was previously a quick, straightforward process. My wish is that - at the very least - the default for Autosave could be Off rather than On - maybe it can be but I can't find how to make it so. I'm trying to discipline myself to make turning it off the first action when opening a document - it's often hidden away beneath the first layer of the quick action toolbar so doesn't jump out and bite me up front.

I do use Word 2016 online (Office 365 subscription) with OneDrive - and I wish I had not chosen it! I openly admit that I am not a Word expert - I just use it as an efficient typewriter (and have done for 20 years now) - but it used to work fairly intuitively for me, so I found it pretty easy.

Another major bugbear with the online version is autocorrect. In previous versions of Word, I could build up a library of words I commonly mistype and Word would automatically correct them. I can't find how to do this in the online version so have to manually correct each one (I'm not a brilliant typist so this takes time!).

If you can help me on either point I would be very grateful. I will also follow your link (thank you) and have a go at Microsoft direct.

It appears that, for this purpose, you'll want to immediately make a copy rather than make changes and then Save As.

Rather than turning off AutoSave when working online, make the copy first. Then you won't have to worry about it.

If you find yourself in this situation, where it has autosaved over the top of something you wanted, in the same Word session, create a new document, then copy your changed text into it, then use the version control in the original to go back to the original. There are instructions for doing this in the article I linked earlier.

Word is not a typewriter nor a typewriter analog. It does a poor job at it. It is a powerful word processor. I again urge you to read all of Shauna Kelly's series of beginner articles. Basic Concepts of Microsoft Word - from Shauna Kelly You will wish you had done so years ago, but will be glad you did now. You will immediately start saving time and angst. After that, I would focus on Understanding Styles in Microsoft Word.

I don't know how AutoCorrect works in the online version. What happens if you start Word when you are not connected to the Internet? I believe that the subscription includes an offline version of Word. You could try using that version.

This could be a matter of Word storing your AutoCorrect entries on the cloud. Can you access the AutoCorrect options dialog when using Word online? If so, what do you see?

Here is my article on AutoCorrect, AutoText and Building Blocks (as well as, tangentially, AutoFormat as you type): Automated Boilerplate Using Microsoft Word

If you do post elsewhere, remember the courtesy of providing a link to each thread in each thread. That way people are not repeating work already done. Someone there may well be able to help you understand how AutoCorrect (and AutoSave) work in the online version of Office 365. Be sure to specify that this is what you are using. I would also recommend posting separate questions on the AutoSave (title your post "AutoSave in Word 365 online" and AutoCorrect (title post "AutoCorrect in Word 365 online").

Cross-posted at https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...f-dde347980432 (without a link back here).