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. Charles Kenyon 170.8K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-06-23T13:07:59+00:00

    You can pin folders to the recent folders list. That process was described earlier in this thread.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-06-23T03:24:30+00:00

    I haven't figured out how to do what you want in the "new & improved" File > Open backstage pane.

    Fortunately there is a way to do this in the "old" Open dialog (and Win 10). Sorry, I don't have access to Win 8.1 right now so I can't confirm the exact details.

    In Win 10 File Explorer, if you right click on the desired folder you can click on "Pin to Quick Access".  It then shows up at the top of the left hand pane under The "Quick Access" heading.   In Office 2016, if you use the old "File Open" dialog, you see the same "Quick Access" category (green highlight).  For example, during this test I added the last entry to the QA list.

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=fb05e55a-1491-4c44-a9da-09a70d1163f7)

    If I remember correctly, if Win 8.1 doesn't have Quick Access, it does have "Libraries", which I believe you can manipulate in the same way.

    I think Win 8.1 "Favorites" work in the same way:

    http://windowstechies.com/getting-familiar-file-explorers-main-window/

    "If you can't join 'em, beat them over the head with a club"

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  3. 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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