Word cannot complete the operation because too many files are open

Question

Hello,
I'm working on a 60 pg. document, and when I hit 'save', I get this annoying msg.:
"word cannot complete the operation because too many files are open." I have no other files open, and I am unable to continue to work, because I cannot save - can anyone help? Thanks!

Answer 1

Hello Kristina,
Have you been able to save the file at all?
More than anything, it seems to be a bug when you're trying to save to a server. There's more on the problem here. So what you can also try is simply saving the file to your desktop, or somewhere on your Mac's hard drive. That way you're saving the file locally instead of to a server. If that works, you've at least saved the file and can continue on. Otherwise, read on.
If you can't do it from Word, then at least save your changes from another application. Open TextEdit. You should get a blank file on the desktop. Make sure it's set as a rich text file. You'll know just be looking at it. If you see a ruler and other buttons at the top of the TextEdit document window, it's rich text. If not, make it rich text by pressing CommandShiftT.
Copy and paste your entire Word text into the TextEdit window. Save the TextEdit document to the desktop. Now that you've at least gotten your work saved, you can try some other things.
If you're not trying to work on the file from, or save it to a remote server, then don't worry about the first workaround. It doesn't apply. Number two was poorly worded by John. He seems to assume everyone knows what RH is. I had to look it up. It means Remote Home folder. So open the Word preferences and click on FIle Locations. Highlight the first choice, Documents, and click on the Modify button. Choose any location you want on your Mac's hard drive. Click "Choose" and close the preferences. Can you now save the document to the folder you defined as the default save location?
Spotlight is that little magnifying glass in the upper right corner of your screen by the time/date. There are a few methods to disable Spotlight. What John is saying that if the Mac is spending a lot of time indexing your drives at the same time you're trying to save your Word document, the intense processing time to index may be keeping Word from saving.
If you've managed to at least save your file as a rich text TextEdit document, then shut all of your applications down and restart your Mac. Launch Word and open the TextEdit file. You may lose some formating if you've done tables or other things TextEdit can't save in Word's original form.