Microsoft is testing a new feature that will allow Word documents on Windows to automatically save to the cloud by default. Currently, Word's automatic save to the cloud feature is turned off by default.Microsoft emphasizes that automatically saving files to the cloud has many benefits, including providing better security and compliance in enterprise environments, avoiding the risk of file loss, and enabling cross-device synchronization capabilities through flexible storage options such as SharePoint and OneDrive.
In addition, this feature will support more online collaboration options, and Copilot integration will be available for users with Copilot Chat or Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses.
This feature is currently only available to Microsoft 365 Insiders users and requires running Word for Windows Version 2509 (Build 19221.20000) or higher to use it.
In testing, the auto-save to cloud feature will be enabled by default, and when users save a file via Ctrl+S, a message will appear at the top of the save dialog box saying "This file has been created in the cloud."
If the user attempts to close an unsaved document, Word will prompt the user to confirm whether to save or discard changes. A blank document will be discarded without user confirmation.
Users can also change the cloud storage location through "Word Options > Save > Automatically create new files in the cloud" or even disable the feature entirely.
Microsoft also plans to extend this feature to PowerPoint and Excel later this year.
