0.2 Files, saving, OneDrive and version history

What you'll be able to do

Stop losing work. You will know where a file is kept and let AutoSave save it for you. You will bring yesterday's version back when today's edit was a mistake. You will stop making copies with frightened names.

Before you start

Any Office app, signed in with a Microsoft account. Have one file you can experiment on.

The work

1. Same either way: find out where your file is kept. Open the File menu and read the path on the Info screen. "This computer" means one disk and no older versions. OneDrive means Microsoft's storage on the internet, which keeps older versions for you. SharePoint means your organisation's shared space on the internet. Everything else in this lesson depends on that one fact.
2. Same either way: look at the AutoSave switch at the top-left of the window. AutoSave saves every change as you make it. It works only for files kept on OneDrive or SharePoint. With it on, there is no "I forgot to save". It also saves your mistakes at once, so do experiments on a copy.
3. Same either way: for a file on this computer, saving is still yours to do. Press Ctrl+S after any work you would mind typing again.
4. No documented keyboard shortcut for this — use the menu: to see older versions of a file kept on the internet, go to File → Info → Version History. A pane lists the versions by date. Open one and it appears beside the current file, read-only, with a Restore button. Restoring an older version does not delete today's work. Today becomes another version in the list.
5. Same either way: break something on purpose. In your practice file, delete a paragraph and let AutoSave save the damage. Then open the version history and restore the older version. Watching a lost paragraph come back is what makes this lesson stay with you.
6. No documented keyboard shortcut for this — use the menu: to hand a finished document to someone, go to File → Save a Copy (or Save As). Choose PDF. A PDF holds the layout still and nobody can edit it by accident. It is right for finished work and wrong for anything you are still writing.
7. Same either way: learn the file types by name. Files ending .docx, .xlsx and .pptx are the live files you can still edit. PDF is the frozen copy you hand out. CSV holds only plain values with commas between them, and no formatting or formulas at all. Save a sheet as CSV only when another system asks for CSV, because everything else is thrown away.

Try it

Move one of your own files to OneDrive and watch AutoSave switch on. Make three edits a few minutes apart. Open Version History and find all three. Then save a copy as PDF and open both files side by side.

Check yourself