Save As in Word won't save as Plain Text

Question

When choosing Save As and then choosing Plain Text file option, Word simply ignores and returns to the .docx file. No questions asked. Usually a panel appears asking for file parameters--that does not appear. Literally NOTHING happens.

I need this for work (as do many of my colleagues.)

Yes, I know there are work-arounds involving a simple text editor, but they don't provide all of the options -- some quite important. Why remove an important functionality?

Answer 1

I'll say up front that in desktop Word from Microsoft 365, version 2607 (Build 20228.20110) Current Channel on Windows 11 Pro, the File Conversion dialog (the panel you mentioned) does appear when choosing Save As to Plain Text.

To understand what's happening on your system, we'll need more information about your setup:

• Are you using desktop Word or Word on the Web?
• If it's the desktop, what are the version and build numbers shown at File > Account > About Word?
• Is it on Windows, Mac, or another operating system?

Try some basic troubleshooting steps:

• Does the Save As fail with every document you try, or just with one or some but not others?
• If the latter, is there something in documents that fail that isn't in the others?
• Use the troubleshooting steps in https://learn.microsoft.com/en-US/office/troubleshoot/word/issues-when-start-or-use-word -- but leave the registry changes (the third and fourth sections) until after you've tried all the other steps without success.

Answer 2

A. If the file just contains text with formatting, I can save it as TXT. B. But if the file contains complex links and perhaps other metadata (e.g., an entire paragraph copied from a Wikipedia page), then Word is unable to save it as TXT, even if I'm just trying to save it locally. I've made a screen recording demonstrating issue B, but the file is too large to attach in this forum, so here are instructions to replicate it: Go to this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Prince's_chevauch%C3%A9e_of_1356#Background In the Background section of the page, copy the text of the entire first paragraph, including the reference marker at the end. Go to Word and open a new file. Paste the text you copied in Step 2 into this file (see the screenshot). Click File > Save As. Select a local folder on your computer. Change the file type to Plain Text (.txt), name the file and click Save. At this point, you should see the dialog box where you choose the encoding type, such as Unicode UTF-8, but on my computer, the encoding dialog box never comes up and the view instantly returns to the unsaved file in MS Word. There is no warning message telling me that the file didn't save, but the file name at the top of the screen is still the default "Document N" as shown in the screenshot, and when I try to close the file, I am prompted to save it if I don't want to lose all my work.

@Tom R has provided a way to reproduce this error. Thanks!

Following Tom's instructions, I copied the first text paragraph below "Background" in the Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Prince's_chevauch%C3%A9e_of_1356#Background (see the screen shot below) into a Word document. Conversion to .txt format then simply doesn't work. No .txt file is created by Word.

My test was done in Word 2024 (Office Home & Business 2024).

@Charles Kenyon , @Jay Freedman , do you see this as well?

   

Answer 3

Hi Maria,

Based on your sharing, this behavior is truly unexpected. Normally, when using Save as Plain Text, Word should proceed to a File Conversion dialog where you choose encoding options. I have tested in my Word using version 2606 build 20131.20052 and I can confirm the feature is still available, not being removed.

As a practical test to narrow down the situation, please try these steps:

1/ Try saving the file to a local folder

• If your file is currently in a SharePoint/OneDrive synced folder, network drive, etc. try saving the file locally to a local location like C:\ or Desktop. It will help rule out online sync issue if there is any.

2/ Try Word in Safe mode

• Press Windows + R to open Run dialog box > type winword /safe > press OK to run.
• If the Plain text can be saved normally, the problem is mostly due to an add-in.
• Then go to File > Options > Add-ins > select Word Add-ins > Go > uncheck all listed add-ins and click OK. Repeat the same steps with the COM add-ins
• Restart the normal Word and check if the error is gone. Then re-enable the add-ins one by one and restarting Word each time to find which one causing the error.

3/ Repair Office

• Close all Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)
• Go to Settings (or use Windows + I shortcut) > Apps > Installed Apps
• Find Microsoft 365/Office in the list > select the three dots (…) next to it and choose Modify.
• If prompted by User Account Control, select Yes.
• Run Quick Repair first. If the issue persists, run Online Repair later.

Note: This process requires stable internet connection and may take several minutes to complete.

You can give it a try and let me know whether it works. If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out again in the comments on this post. I'm happy to assist you further

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. I'm looking forward to your reply.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Yes" and kindly upvote it.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 4

I've been having this same problem since early July. When I choose File > Save a Copy, select .txt as the file format, and click Save, the file encoding dialog does not appear like it used to, and the .txt file is not created. This happens regardless of where the original .docx file is located (e.g. , on my local hard drive vs. a OneDrive folder) and regardless of where I try to save the .txt file.

Also, the "Save As" menu item is no longer called "Save As"—now it's "Save a Copy." I think this menu change might pre-date this .txt file issue, but I'm not sure.

My workaround is to copy the contents of the .docx file and paste it into Notepad++, but this is not ideal.

Answer 5

Have you checked for the new file in the Windows file directory?

Save As to pdf does not change the current file but creates a new file in the appropriate format.

Save As to txt does change the name of the current file to a .txt extension, but the full content is still there. If you close it and then reopen in Word you will be asked to convert. It will lose all non-text elements. Open in NotePad and you will see the plain text.

Yes, it is disconcerting to save as Plain Text and have the page on screen not change.