Accessing and pinning recent documents in Office 2010

If you're a veteran of Office 2007, you may be used to having your most recently accessed documents pinned to the Office menu. In Office 2010, these recent documents are in the "Backstage" section accessed using the File tab.

To access an expansive list of Recent Documents and Recent Places, simply click the Recent button on the left navigation. You can even pin favorite documents and places using the pushpin icon to the right of the resource.

But if you want even faster access to your most recent documents, go to the bottom of this screen and click the Quickly access this number of Recent Documents and enter a number between 0 and 25 (or just accept the default of 4):

The recent documents you designated are now listed right above the Info button when you're on the File tab:

Just be aware that too many recent documents will push down your Backstage buttons, making them more difficult to access. Ten documents is perfect for me, but this may vary depending on your display and screen resolution. Pick the number that works best for you. Remember, you can always find more in the Recent section.

Suzanne

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 16, 2011
  I have tried everything I can think of to figure this one out! (Word 2010) When I go to File/Options/Advanced and in the Display area to change the number of visible Recent Documents, it is gray and I can't get to it to change anything. Where would I go to fix that? Thanks

• Anonymous
  October 10, 2011
  Just upgraded my Accountants to Excel 2010 and they hate the new Recent File List.  They don't want files grouped by pinned and unpinned and they don't like the large excel icon that eats up space in their lists.  Any way to get the Recent File list in Excel 2010 to look and act like the Excel 2007 list?  Thanks.