How to make a copy of a Word document

Knowing how to make a copy of a Word doc is an undoubtedly handy skill to have in your document management repertoire.

After all, there are plenty of reasons why you might need to copy documents, including:

To create a secure backup
To work on a copy of the document and leave the original intact
To share the document with someone else for co-editing
To use as a template

Luckily, there are several simple and effective methods to suit any purpose e.g. you can copy and paste the file, create a copy using the “Context” menu, or use the “Save as” feature or create a new copy from Word.

Follow our handy guide to learn how to successfully create duplicates of your Word documents.

How to duplicate a Word document: Five easy ways

Effective Word doc duplication can help you manage your documents better, improving workflows and ensuring you always have backups.

Here are some of the ways you can do it.

1. Copy and paste in File Explorer

The simplest way to copy a Word document in Windows is to utilize copy and paste.

Go to the location/folder containing the document in File Explorer.
Right-click on the file.
In the drop-down menu, select “Copy”.
Go to the location/folder you wish to duplicate the file to.
Right-click on any empty space in the window.
In the drop-down menu, select “Paste”.
A duplicate Word document should appear.

You can use hotkeys to simplify this even further.

Find the Word document in File Explorer.
Highlight the file.
On your keyboard, hold “Ctrl” + “C”.
Go to the location/folder you wish to duplicate the file to.
On your keyboard, hold “Ctrl” + “P”.
A duplicate Word document should appear.

2. Make a copy from macOS Finder

If you use macOS, you can also copy Word documents in the Finder window.

Locate the Word document in Finder.
Right-click on the file.
In the drop-down menu, select “Copy”.
Navigate to the location you wish to copy the file to in Finder.
Right–click in the window.
Select “Pasteitem”.
Your file should appear.

3. Create a copy from the file

A third way to copy your Word document is from the file itself.

Locate the Word document in File Explorer.
Right-click on it.
In the drop-down menu, select “New”.
Microsoft Word will open a copy of the Word document with a name like Document1.
Documents from unknown locations will open in read-only mode and won’t allow you to make edits yet. You might need a password or a guide on unlocking a Word document to proceed. If not, simply click “Enableediting”.
You can then click “File” and “Save” to save this copy to any location you wish.

4. “Save as” in Microsoft Word

There are a couple of different ways to copy a Word document from within Microsoft Word itself, and this is another of them.

Open the file in Microsoft Word.
Click “File”.
Click “Saveas”.
In the browser window, navigate to where you’d like to save a copy of the Word document.
Save the file with the same name as the original or rename it.

5. Open as a copy in Microsoft Word

In case you still need it, here’s one more way to duplicate a document in Word.

Open Microsoft Word.
Select “File”.
Select “Open”.
In the browsing window, locate the Word document you wish to copy and highlight it.
Look at the open button in the bottom right corner of the browser window. Select the little triangle beside it.
In the drop-down menu, there will be multiple options for how to open the Word document.
Select “Open as copy”.
Another Microsoft Word window will open containing a document named something like “(copy of)yourdocumentname.docx”.
This new document will be saved in the original file location. You can rename or relocate it as you wish.

Learn how to copy a Word document for better workflow management

Whether you’re copying a document or making labels in Word, dealing with a lot of different files can become confusing, and this can slow down your workflow management.

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