Unable to save document as a .txt file

Question

Unable to save document as a .txt file

Mark Warren 0

For some reason all of a sudden, I am not able to save my Word doc file as a .txt file. I have tried to do the "Save As" as well as performing an Export, but neither method is saving the document into that file format. What is going wrong?

Moderator note: Locking this thread. Please post follow-ups in the thread at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5961923/save-as-in-word-wont-save-as-plain-text .

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2 answers

Answer 1

Charles Kenyon 169.6K Volunteer Moderator

Have you checked for the new file in the 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.

Mark Warren 0 Reputation points

2026-07-31T21:55:33.5366667+00:00

Charles, you did, however, give me an idea. I copied and pasted my text from my Word doc to Notepad and then saved it within Notepad. That worked! It's crazy that I have to do that, though.
Stefan Blom 348K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-07-31T23:53:32.7533333+00:00

I copied and pasted my text from my Word doc to Notepad and then saved it within Notepad. That worked!

Although you can obviously edit a text file in NotePad, saving, closing and re-opening in Word should also display the .txt file in the correct format.
Sharon Baird 0 Reputation points

2026-08-05T18:16:03.4666667+00:00

Mark! I'm so glad you posted that! I'm SO irritated that I am no longer able to save my word doc as a .txt file - all the sudden it stopped working and it's been causing me grief for a couple months now. Charles, I tried your suggestion but that did not work and then I tried Mark's et voila! I am able to proceed with editing the .txt file in the musical program I use (OnSong). It's an extra step that should NOT be necessary however that is a great workaround and I'm really glad I read your post. Thanks everyone .. now here's hoping Microsoft fixes this problem so we can get back to our previous routines.

Answer 2

Stefan Blom 348K MVP Volunteer Moderator

There seems to be an ongoing issue with saving in plain text format. For more, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5961923/save-as-in-word-wont-save-as-plain-text .

Please post follow-ups in the other thread so that all info can be collected there. Thanks.

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