Microsoft Word displays your recently used documents in the Home tab just like other Office applications. This allows you to quickly access recently used files and get on with your work. While that’s helpful, you may end up clicking or revealing confidential files when you share your computer with others.
Fortunately, Word allows you to remove items from the Recently Used Documents list. You can also turn off the Recents list entirely if you want. In this post, we will show you how to do both. So let’s get straight to it.
- 1 Remove specific entries from the recent documents list in Microsoft Word
- 2 Delete all items from recent documents list in Microsoft Word
- 3 Disable Recent Documents List in Microsoft Word
- 4 Bonus: Delete Recently Used Documents from the Start, Jump List and File Explorer on Windows
- 5 Enjoy a clean vehicle
Remove specific entries from the recent documents list in Microsoft Word
When you want to remove a few documents from the recent list, Microsoft Word allows you to delete those items individually. Here’s how you can access it.
Step 1: Open Microsoft Word on your PC. In the Home tab, scroll down to the Recents list.
Step 2: Locate the document you want to remove from the list. Right click on it and select ‘Remove from list’ option.
Your document will disappear from the list. You can repeat the previous steps to remove other entries from Word’s Recents list.
It should be noted that removing an item from the Recents list will also remove the item from the Open tab in Word.
Delete all items from recent documents list in Microsoft Word
If you want to remove all items from the Recent list in Word, you can also delete the entire list. Here’s what you’ll need to do.
Step 1: Open Microsoft Word on your PC and switch to the Open tab.
Step 2: In the Document, right-click on any entry and select Remove Unpinned Items.
Step 3: A message will appear asking you to confirm your choice. Select Yes to continue.
Once you complete the steps above, Word will clear the list of recently used documents and show only your pinned items.
Disable Recent Documents List in Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word displays your 50 recently opened documents in the Recent list. You can also turn off the Recent Documents list in Word entirely if you don’t want to delete items manually all the time. You will have to reduce the number of documents that appear in the Recent list to 0 (zero). Here’s how you can go about it.
Step 1: Open Microsoft Word and select Options in the bottom left corner.
Step 2: In the Word Options window that appears, use the left pane to find the Advanced tab.
Step 3: Scroll down to the Display section and find the ‘Show recent document number’ option.
Step 4: Change the value to 0 (zero) to turn off the Recent list and press OK to save the changes.
After applying those changes, Word will no longer show any entries in the Recent list. Note that this will also remove your pinned documents from the list. If you ever want to re-enable the Recents list in Word, repeat the steps above and change the value of ‘Show Number of Recent Documents’ in Word Options to any number between 0 and 50.
After activating the Recent menu again, all your previous and pinned items will appear.
Bonus: Delete Recently Used Documents from the Start, Jump List and File Explorer on Windows
Even if you turn off the Recent list in Word, your recently opened documents will still appear when you right-click the Word icon on the Taskbar or the File Explorer Recents list.
You can remove specific items from the Start menu, Jump List or File Explorer by right-clicking on them and selecting the ‘Remove from this list’ option.
Alternatively, you can also turn off the list of recently opened items in Windows. To do so, press Windows + I to open the Settings app. In the Personalization tab, select Get Started.
Turn off the ‘Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists and File Explorer’ option.
Once disabled, Windows will no longer show the items you recently opened in the Start menu, Jump Lists, and File Explorer recent lists.
Enjoy a clean vehicle
Clearing or disabling the Recents list in Word is a neat way to keep your activities private. Also, the process is relatively straightforward, regardless of whether you’re clearing or disabling the Recents list.
Although we only discuss Microsoft Word in this post, you can use the same steps to clear or disable the recently used documents list in Microsoft Excel.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
