Macos – MS Word goes into read-only mode when trying to save document

keyboard shortcutsmacosmicrosoft wordmicrosoft-officeread-only

I just installed a clean copy of MS Word 2016 for Mac today. I opened and started writing a essay, but I can't save it.

When I try to save, either with ⌘+S, ⌘+⇧+S, the save option under the file dropdown, or the save-as under the dropdown, the top meny grays out and I can't edit the document anymore.

Also, after it goes into read-only I can change it back under the Word dropdown and click the Activate Office button.

2 screenshots of before and after:

Before:
Before I hit ⌘-S, normal mode

After:
After I hit ⌘-S, readonly mode

I can't do anything like this. How can I stop this from happening?

I already activated office from the wizard that popped up when I first installed and opened MS Word. I entered email and password, and it found my license and said I was good to go.

So it shouldn't be de-activating on me. I did purchase it, and it was MS Office 2016.

I am running the lastest OS X version, El Capitan 10.11.4.

Best Answer

I had some similar issues when installing Office 2016, but what worked for me was activating Office in another Office app (e.g. PowerPoint, Excel). Oddly the activation stayed active this way, whereas in Word it would revert back to being unactivated.

If that doesn't work, the recommended procedure is to completely uninstall Office and try again.

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