Change Default File Save Type In Word 2010 [How To]

By default whenever you want to save documents in Microsoft Word 2010, it offers you to save the document with a .docx extension (Word Document). In case you want to save the file in a different format, you need to select that type in the ‘Save as type’ section of the Save dialog.

Selecting a different file type each time you save may work fine as long as you do it only occasionally. However if your work needs you to continually create documents in a format different from the default .docx type, it is tiring to manually switch to the other file type each time you save a file.

In such scenarios you may like to change the default ‘Save as type’ for Word 2010. Here are the steps to do this:

1. Click on the ‘Office Button’ at the top left corner of your Word 2010 document’s window. This will take you to the Backstage View.

2. Click on ‘Options’.

3. Click on the ‘Save’ tab.

4. In the ‘Save documents’ section click on the drop down menu of ‘Save files in this format’. Choose a file format from the list.

The available file types include Plain Text (*.txt), Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc), Web Page (.htm, .html), Rich Text Format (.rtf), OpenDocument Text (.odt), Works 609 Document (.wps), Word Template (.dotx) and several others.

5. Click OK to save your changes.

From now on whenever you hit Save, Word 2010 offers you to save the document in the specified format.