Word 2016 and Excel 2016 - Customize the File > Open menu

Anonymous
2015-09-28T09:13:42+00:00

Hello,

How can I customize the File > Open menu in Word 2016 and Excel 2016, please?

Add a Place works only for the cloud.

As for This PC, it shows me a list of folders I am not interested in, and that apparently I cannot remove.

On the contrary, I'd like to add different folders, which are not even in the C drive but on a D drive.

The only customization I found is in Options > Advanced > File Locations, in there I changed the location for Documents to my D drive, but it does not affect the File > Open menu at all.

And in Excel 2016, this command is not even there under Options.

Thanks and regards,

Marco

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Suzanne S Barnhill 279.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2015-09-28T13:49:12+00:00

You can bypass this entirely by checking the box for "Don't show the Backstage when opening or saving files" at File | Options | Save. You can then use Ctrl+O or an Open button on the Quick Access Toolbar to go directly to the classic Open dialog, which is an Explorer window in which you can add Favorites to the Navigation pane. When you start Word, the Open dialog will default to the folder you have specified as the default location for your documents; if you open a file from a subfolder, it will become the default for the next open operation.

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Jay Freedman 208.2K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2017-06-13T19:32:24+00:00

When you "add Favorites to the Navigation pane" (renamed as Quick Access in Windows 10) and pin them there, they show up in the Open and Save dialogs of Office programs. That is equivalent to pinning them on the File > Open page of the Backstage, the thing that has been (unfortunately) removed. That's one of the reasons to avoid the Backstage as Suzanne suggested.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-06-23T02:53:27+00:00

    I want to just add other locations to the menu without having to navigate through the old-fashioned dialogue box.   The problem is not that I can't get to other folders, it's that there are about 5 or 6 I use all the time and another 10 or so that I use with some frequency, but some of them are buried 3 or 4 folders deep, which means I have to go through 4 or 5 steps to get to them through the dialogue box.  I want to just pin those folders to the list that shows up automatically underneath the default folder instead of (or in addition to) a list of recent folders I've saved in.  I would think this is what the 'Add a Location' button should be for, but the only thing I can add is OneDrive, which I don't even use.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-06-22T17:32:21+00:00

    What is it that you want to do?

    When I clicked on "This PC" (instead of "Computer", I suspect this is a Win 8 vs Win 10 difference) it shows "Documents" folder at top and all of the sub folders below that.  When I right click on one of those folders I see the same options.  But, at the top, just to the left of the "Documents" folder I see a blue "up arrow". If I click on it, I see an old style "Open dialog". From there I can navigate to anywhere on the computer to open files there.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-06-22T14:40:53+00:00

    The only options I get when right clicking on the folders as you described are 'open' and 'copy path to clipboard,' and the only folders that show up are the ones within my default folder.  Is there a way to change that?

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