Backup/Restore Microsoft Office Settings

Many times we spend lots of time to configure the MSOffice or MS Outlook settings after reinstalling MSOffice or MS Outlook or when we change the computer.

To avoid this, we can use Save My Settings Wizard to Backup and Restore the MS Office Settings. Step-by-Step explained below.

Install the Save My Settings Wizard

The Save My Settings Wizard is typically installed with Office. To determine if the Save My Settings Wizard is installed, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then point to All Programs. \Point to Microsoft Office Tools.

If the Save My Settings Wizard does not appear on the Microsoft Office Tools menu, the wizard is not installed.

If you do not have the Save My Settings Wizard installed, follow these steps:

1. Quit all Office programs.

2. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

3. Click Add or Remove Programs.

4. Click Change or Remove Programs.

5. In the Currently installed programs list, click Microsoft Office 2003, and then click Change.

6. In the Microsoft Office 2003 Setup dialog box, click Add or Remove Features, and then click Next.

7. In the Features to install tree, expand Office Tools.

8. Click Save My Settings Wizard, and then click Run all from My Computer.

9. Click Update.

10. Click OK when Setup has completed successfully.

Save or Restore Settings

You can either save your Office settings from your computer, or you can restore your settings to your computer or to a different computer.

Save Settings

The Save the setting from this machine option instructs the wizard to capture your Office configuration settings from the Office programs that you have installed.

To save your settings, follow these steps:

1. Quit all Office programs.

2. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Office, and then point to Microsoft Office Tools.

3. Click Microsoft Office 2003 Save My Settings Wizard.

4. In the Save My Settings Wizard, click Next.

5. Click Save the settings from this machine, and then click Next.

6. Type the location where you want to save the file, and then click Finish.

Note If you want to save the settings to a location other than the default location (for example, a network share), click Browse.

Note The Save My Settings Wizard saves only user options that have been changed from their default values. For example, if you set the Microsoft Word Allow fast saves option, but you do not change the Always create backup copy option, the Save My Settings Wizard saves only the Allow fast saves setting to the .ops file.

Important The Save My Settings Wizard does not create or write to the .ops file until you click Finish.

Restore Your Previously Saved Settings

The Restore Your Previously Saved Settings option instructs the wizard to restore your Office configuration settings from the .ops file that you specify.

To restore your settings, follow these steps:

1. Quit all Office programs.

2. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Office Tools, and then click Save My Settings Wizard.

3. In the Save My Settings Wizard, click Next.

4. Click Restore previously saved settings to this machine, and then click Next.

5. In the File to Restore Settings From box, type the path of the location of your .ops file, and then click Finish.

Important The Save My Settings Wizard does not import the settings from the .ops file until you click Finish.