Limiting Options when Saving

When Dennis saves a new workbook or uses Save As to save a workbook, Excel always offers to save the workbook to OneDrive or to a few other esoteric places. He finds this bothersome, as he always want to save to the system on which he is working. He wonders if there is a way to tell Excel to skip these other areas and always save to his local system.

Dennis mentions two ways to save his workbook—using Save and using Save As. The latter method (Save As) is rather easy to deal with once you understand that Excel displays different information dependent on how you invoke Save As.

• If you use the Save As option from the File tab of the ribbon, then Excel displays everything that Dennis mentions.
• If you invoke Save As by pressing the F12 shortcut key, then Excel offers to save the workbook in whatever place the active workbook is currently saved. In other words, it bypasses everything that Dennis doesn't want displayed.

The interesting thing is that this shortcut key (F12) will work just fine with brand-new workbooks, as well. That means you could create a new workbook, press F12, and save it using the traditional dialog box instead of all the stuff that Microsoft seems to display these days.

Finally, if you really prefer to use the Save and Save As options from the File tab of the ribbon, you can turn off the display of the "other places." You do that by following these steps:

1. Display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options. Excel displays the Excel Options dialog box.
2. At the left side of the dialog box, click Save.
3. Clear the "Show Additional Places for Saving, Even if Sign-in May Be Required" check box.
4. Choose the "Save to Computer by Default" check box.
5. Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8478) applies to Microsoft Excel 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365.