I have an older Mac with MacOS Monterey 12.7.6. I also purchased MS Word some months ago (i.e. not whole Office suite). MS Word no longer saves on my Mac.

Hello Donna Williams,

Thank you for reaching out in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

I understand how confusing and frustrating it can be to see that Microsoft Word no longer saves documents on your Mac, especially after you previously purchased Word as a standalone application.

To help explain the situation, please note the following:

• On macOS Monterey 12.7.6, Microsoft Word versions newer than 16.88 are not supported, and this can result in unexpected behavior such as the inability to save files.
• Version 16.88 is the last Word build compatible with macOS Monterey. If Word updates beyond this version, core features like saving and editing documents may stop working correctly.
• Microsoft no longer provides a separate standalone installer for Word on macOS. Word is now distributed within the Microsoft Office installer, even if you only purchased a Word‑only license.
• Installing the Office package does not require you to use the full Office suite; your existing license will activate Word only.

Based on this, installing Office version 16.88 is the recommended approach to restore normal saving functionality on macOS Monterey, even though the download is labeled as the full Office suite.

If upgrading Office is not possible, third‑party apps like LibreOffice can open and save Word documents, though some advanced features may not render correctly.

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Please let me know if you need any assistance.

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