There are strict rules on the usage of full stops, too. So what, you might wonder, are the other characters you shouldn’t put into filenames? Characters to avoid when saving Word docs and other filesĪccording to Microsoft, you cannot use the following characters anywhere in a filename: All you need do is remove that troublesome question mark from the filename and it will save right away. The average user might fairly conclude that Word has crashed, swear a bit and then spend the next hour re-typing their document. Instead, if you attempt to save a document with a ? in the filename, Word will simply refuse to save the file. The question mark is on the list of characters that you can’t use in filenames. And that doesn’t only apply to Word documents, by the way, but Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, digital photos or any type of file you attempt to save in Windows. There are certain characters that you simply can’t put into the title of a saved document. This is 2017: what do you expect? Usability? But will Word tell you why it won’t save a document with that filename? Of course it won’t. Here’s one for irony corner: if I’d written a document titled ‘why won’t my Word document save?’ in Microsoft Word, it wouldn’t save.
