I just cannot describe how disappointed I am that I cannot find the Recent Folder list in Excel anymore.

As a business user, I open and work on many spreadsheets from many network resources during my working day.

Sometimes, when it is hard to remember (e.g. after a few weeks) where a certain document was stored, it is (was :-() soo easy to consult the list of folders which has been used. Especially because - after working with dozens of items - the list of folders can be so much shorter than the list of files (of which the history can never be too long ...)

I really cannot understand that MS can even THINK that the most important user group ((larger) businesses) will be so happy seeing 'One Drive' instead!!!

This must be One Terrible mistake!?

Hi

Have you tried this one?

1. Click the File tab.

2. Under Help, click Options.

3. Click Advanced.

4. Under Display, in the Show this number of Recent Documents list, click the number of files that you want to display.

Go to the Office Community and read the response to this question from ArtWalls, he describes a very simple method of how to add this back!  

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/open-recent-files-command-on-quick-access-toolbar/c60fc37f-6e2c-442d-845d-321324beceae

• Proposed as answer by AgapePrez 14 hours 33 minutes ago
• Unproposed as answer by AgapePrez 14 hours 25 minutes ago

I by no means want to take any credit for this answer! I am re-posting this answer to same question here to make sure it gets around.  This is the post from ArtWalls in the MS Office Community I referenced in my prior response (It is simple to do and works perfectly; requires no coding or anything);

"ArtWalls replied on......

On the More Commands dialog, there is an Import/Export button at the bottom right.  Export your current settings, it will create a Excel/Access/Word/appname Customizations.exportedUI file, defaulting to your My Documents folder.

You can open this exportedUI file with Notepad, it has a list of the current customizations in xml format.  There are a series of nodes available, each beginning with a "<mso:" and ending with "/>".  The sections labeled as "control" have named idQ and visible parameters.  Find one with a named idQ parameter that you would like your Recent Files to be located after, place your cursor after the closing "/>" and paste in:

<mso:control idQ="mso:FileOpenRecentFile" visible="true" insertBeforeQ="mso:FileNewDefault"/>

Save the file, and re-import it into your application.  There may be some more tricks to this, but it seemed to work for my Access application."

• Proposed as answer by AgapePrez 14 hours 25 minutes ago

Go to the Office Community and read the response to this question from ArtWalls, he describes a very simple method of how to add this back!  

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/open-recent-files-command-on-quick-access-toolbar/c60fc37f-6e2c-442d-845d-321324beceae

• Proposed as answer by AgapePrez Tuesday, March 17, 2015 4:52 PM
• Unproposed as answer by AgapePrez Tuesday, March 17, 2015 5:00 PM

Go to the Office Community and read the response to this question from ArtWalls, he describes a very simple method of how to add this back!  

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/open-recent-files-command-on-quick-access-toolbar/c60fc37f-6e2c-442d-845d-321324beceae

• Proposed as answer by AgapePrez Tuesday, March 17, 2015 4:52 PM
• Unproposed as answer by AgapePrez Tuesday, March 17, 2015 5:00 PM

I by no means want to take any credit for this answer! I am re-posting this answer to same question here to make sure it gets around.  This is the post from ArtWalls in the MS Office Community I referenced in my prior response (It is simple to do and works perfectly; requires no coding or anything);

"ArtWalls replied on......

On the More Commands dialog, there is an Import/Export button at the bottom right.  Export your current settings, it will create a Excel/Access/Word/appname Customizations.exportedUI file, defaulting to your My Documents folder.

You can open this exportedUI file with Notepad, it has a list of the current customizations in xml format.  There are a series of nodes available, each beginning with a "<mso:" and ending with "/>".  The sections labeled as "control" have named idQ and visible parameters.  Find one with a named idQ parameter that you would like your Recent Files to be located after, place your cursor after the closing "/>" and paste in:

<mso:control idQ="mso:FileOpenRecentFile" visible="true" insertBeforeQ="mso:FileNewDefault"/>

Save the file, and re-import it into your application.  There may be some more tricks to this, but it seemed to work for my Access application."

• Proposed as answer by AgapePrez Tuesday, March 17, 2015 5:00 PM

I by no means want to take any credit for this answer! I am re-posting this answer to same question here to make sure it gets around.  This is the post from ArtWalls in the MS Office Community I referenced in my prior response (It is simple to do and works perfectly; requires no coding or anything);

"ArtWalls replied on......

On the More Commands dialog, there is an Import/Export button at the bottom right.  Export your current settings, it will create a Excel/Access/Word/appname Customizations.exportedUI file, defaulting to your My Documents folder.

You can open this exportedUI file with Notepad, it has a list of the current customizations in xml format.  There are a series of nodes available, each beginning with a "<mso:" and ending with "/>".  The sections labeled as "control" have named idQ and visible parameters.  Find one with a named idQ parameter that you would like your Recent Files to be located after, place your cursor after the closing "/>" and paste in:

<mso:control idQ="mso:FileOpenRecentFile" visible="true" insertBeforeQ="mso:FileNewDefault"/>

Save the file, and re-import it into your application.  There may be some more tricks to this, but it seemed to work for my Access application."

• Proposed as answer by AgapePrez Tuesday, March 17, 2015 5:00 PM

Hi,

As per your description, I think you are referring to the "Recent Place" list, correct?

I understand that in earlier version of Office, for example Excel 2010, if you go to File>Recent, you will see the "Recent Workbooks" and "Recent Places" list on the same page. However, if you go to FILE>Open in Excel 2013, you will only see the "Recent Workbooks" list.

Actually, the "Recent Place" list is still there in Office 2013. When you go to "FILE">"Open", the first tab of "Recent Workbooks" is highlighted (selected) by default, but if you click any of the rest tabs ("Site - Microsoft"/"Other Web Locations"/"Computer", etc.), you will see that Office is listing your Recent Folders there:

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support