Q&A: Setting AutoSave Times In Microsoft Office How often does Microsoft Office 2012 automatically save the file I'm working on? By default, Microsoft Office programs (which include Word, Excel, PowerPoint) are set to automatically save an open file every 10 minutes. This means that if the program crashes, the power goes out or you have some other unexpected event that disrupts your work, your file should still have all the changes you have made - except for the last 10 minutes of work. Your file may retain more recent changes if you manually saved it yourself by pressing Control+S on the keyboard or using the menu option. If you work quickly and 10 minutes seems like too big a gap between autosaves, you can increase the frequency. To do so, click the File tab in Word 2010 or whichever Office program you are using. Click the Options icon on the left side of the screen and then click the Save icon on the next screen. In the "Save AutoRecover information every" area of the box, change the number of minutes from 10 to however often you want the program to automatically save the open file. Click the O.K. button. Frequent automatic saving may slow the program down a bit, but can cause less worry about crashes. Microsoft has a video that demonstrates how to adjust the time between automatic saves, as well as how to use the AutoRecover feature to open an automatically saved file.