[Word 2013] Where are the "Word Options" saved?

[New Daddy]

I thought I finally accomplished multi-device synchronization of Word 2013 settings by syncing Normal.DOTM, Word.officeUI and the dictionary files through Dropbox -- some in a very roundabout way, as some of you may remember.

Not so! The Word Option -- that you reach by going to File - Options -- don't seem to be saved in Word.officeUI. Where are they saved?

On a side note, in light of the fact that so many data and apps reside on cloud these days, I hope Microsoft will have a way of synchronizing all user settings after letting the user log in to use a desktop app.

[HansV]

Word.officeUI saves customizations to the Quick Access Toolbar and to the ribbon.

Unformatted custom AutoCorrect entries are stored in .acl files in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office.

Most of Word's settings are stored in the Windows registry, in the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word and its subkeys.

[New Daddy]

Most of Word's settings are stored in the Windows registry, in the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word and its subkeys.

I hope Microsoft had a good reason in using registry keys, rather than a file, to store user settings.

Does that mean syncing User Settings is almost impossible? Is there an app that can automatically look to a file - located in a Dropbox folder, for example - and modify the registries?

[New Daddy]

Unformatted custom AutoCorrect entries are stored in .acl files in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office.

Do you foresee any adverse effect in syncing the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office folder in its entirety between different devices? Syncing individual files using symbolic link is trickier than syncing entire folder using junction, because Word seems to erase and re-write a complete file in a folder, negating the use of a symbolic link.

[HansV]

Most Windows programs store their settings in the registry - if you start RegEdit and look at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software you'll see subkeys for many programs.

I don't know of an application that synchronizes registry settings.

[HansV]

Do you foresee any adverse effect in syncing the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office folder in its entirety between different devices? Syncing individual files using symbolic link is trickier than syncing entire folder using junction, because Word seems to erase and re-write a complete file in a folder, negating the use of a symbolic link.

The C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office folder contains a subfolder Recent that contains shortcuts to recently opened files; it is probably not desirable to sync those since the shortcuts won't be valid on another computer.

[New Daddy]

Do you foresee any adverse effect in syncing the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office folder in its entirety between different devices? Syncing individual files using symbolic link is trickier than syncing entire folder using junction, because Word seems to erase and re-write a complete file in a folder, negating the use of a symbolic link.

The C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office folder contains a subfolder Recent that contains shortcuts to recently opened files; it is probably not desirable to sync those since the shortcuts won't be valid on another computer.

I'm not sure how the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office folder is utilized. It doesn't contain the most recent Word documents that I just worked on a few minutes ago. The latest is from a month ago, and the preceding one is like a few months ago. The list is different from the Recent Documents that appear under File-Open in Word.

Speaking of which, where is the list of Recent Documents kept? I keep all my documents on a cloud folder, and, because I use the same <user name> across multiple computers, the "absolute" location of my working documents is the same across multiple computers. If the Recent Document list of Word can be synced, I can pick up on another computer right where I left off on another computer.

[HansV]

The list of recent files is stored in the registry, in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word\User MRU\<userid>\File MRU.
The list of recent places is stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word\User MRU\<userid>\Place MRU.

[New Daddy]

Argh...

The list of recent files is stored in the registry, in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word\User MRU\<userid>\File MRU.
The list of recent places is stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word\User MRU\<userid>\Place MRU.

[HansV]

I think that if you sign in to Office 2013 with a Microsoft account (LiveID), some settings such as recently used files and custom dictionaries will be synchronized via OneDrive, but I haven't tested that.

[New Daddy]

I think that if you sign in to Office 2013 with a Microsoft account (LiveID), some settings such as recently used files and custom dictionaries will be synchronized via OneDrive, but I haven't tested that.

I don't think so. I'm logged into my LIveID account, but that doesn't make Word sync my settings across multiple computers.

[HansV]

That's sad. Perhaps it only works if you have an Office 365 subscription.