This editor has been using Microsoft Word and Excel for longer than I can remember, but I can’t say that I’ve ever seen this trick, but I can see it being handy. Create duplicates of documents quickly and easily with “Open As Copy.” Read on for this little timesaver.

If you need to create a new document/file and you want to use another document you’ve already created as your starting point, what do you do? What I’ve typically been doing (and what I see most people do) is browse to the file manually in Explorer (assuming you remember where it is), right click on it, copy, paste, and then work with the new file that usually has some filename like “Oldfile – Copy”.

Instead, if you have opened the original file recently in Word or Excel, you can create the copy right from within the program. Head to the “File” tab in Office, and select “Open.” By default, you should see a list of recently opened documents. Right-click on the document you want to use as your starting point, and select “Open a Copy.”

It will then create a duplicate of that original document that you can then edit and save wherever you might need.

There are also other handy shortcuts on that menu for “Copy path to clipboard” (handy if you need to send somebody a link to a Sharepoint document) or “Pin to list” which will make it so the selected document is always in the “Recent Documents” list.

You have a favorite tip or trick to share? Email us at marketing@weston-tech.com.