Saving Documents

There are several ways to save documents in Microsoft Word. You can save the active document (active document: The document in which you're working. Text you type or graphics you insert in Microsoft Word appear in the active document. The title bar of the active document is highlighted.) you are working on, whether it is new or existed previously. You can save all open documents at the same time. And you can save a copy of the active document with a different name or in a different location.

If you have text or formatting you want to reuse in other documents you create, you can save a document as a Word template (template: A file or files that contain the structure and tools for shaping such elements as the style and page layout of finished files. For example, Word templates can shape a single document, and FrontPage templates can shape an entire Web site.).

If you share documents with people who use previous versions of Word, and you want to be sure the documents look the same when they're opened in the earlier versions, you can turn off features that are not a part of that version.

Saving documents in other file formats

When you need to share documents with people who use other word processors or who use versions of Word that have a different file format (file format: The way in which information is stored in a file so that a program can open and save the file. A file's structure defines how it is stored and displayed. File format is indicated by a three-letter extension after the file name, such as .doc.) (such as Word 6.0/95), you can save documents in other file formats. For example, you can open a document created in Word 6.0, make changes to it in Office Word 2003, and then save it in a format that Word 6.0 can reopen.