A progress bar that appears automatically at the bottom of MS Word, in the middle of the Status Bar, when you save a Word document, is very useful, not only because you can watch the progress when you save a really big document, but mainly because the appearance of this bar lets you be sure that the document was indeed saved.

When a document is small, this bar doesn’t have time to show any progress (normally in green color), but only appears, having a small red x at its end. Even this brief appearance, however, is enough to let you know that the “Save” command worked, and your document is saved.

If the “Save” progress bar won’t appear, go to the Word’s options (File/Ribbon -> Options -> Advanced -> Save) and check the option “Allow background saves“.

Next time you save your document, the little progress bar at the bottom should appear – even for just a moment, when the size of your document is small.

Being yourself an author or student you will perhaps appreciate especially this feature, that the very structure of the book will teach you how to work. The book contains even chapters on how to prepare a document for professional publishers such as Amazon. Reading Steven Adams' Writing a book or thesis in Microsoft Word you are surprised realizing it makes you want to work -- to think, write, use Word and be creative!