Is there anything more upsetting, annoying, or frustrating than accidentally losing a chunk of your work? It could happen for all sorts of reasons: accidentally closing an app, losing power in a storm, or maybe a simple software crash.

If you've spent hours crafting a document, the last thing you want is to have to start from scratch.

Luckily, Microsoft Office 365 now offers a way to auto-save your work. Best of all, you can turn the feature on or off using a Quick Access Toolbar icon, if you know when to look.

Add Auto-Save to the Quick Access Toolbar

Adding an auto-save icon to the Quick Access Toolbar is easy. Just follow these five steps:

  1. Launch Microsoft Word, Excel, or Powerpoint.
  2. Locate the small downward-facing arrow in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
  3. Click the arrow to expand the list of Quick Access Toolbar customizations.
  4. Click Automatically Save.
  5. Slide the toggle into the On position.

However, the new auto-save feature has a few caveats you need to be aware of:

  • The feature will only work if you save the document into OneDrive. It does not work for locally saved documents.
  • As of this writing, the feature is only available to Office 365 subscribers.
  • The feature only works for the newest Office document formats. For example, files if you have saved as XLS, PPT, or DOC, the feature will not work. Instead, you need to make sure your files are saved in the newer DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX formats.

Will you use this new Office 365 feature or is it too restrictive to be useful to you? As always, you can leave all your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

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