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

Anonymous

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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer accepted by question author

Suzanne S Barnhill 279.2K MVP Volunteer Moderator

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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Answer accepted by question author

Jay Freedman 208.2K Volunteer Moderator

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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84 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-10-19T07:30:37+00:00

Thank you Doug!

This is extremely useful for me.

I've not customized my Quick access by adding the folders I use more, and I have even removed those folders I don't need. Such as the default Documents on C:\ since I keep all my data on a separate SSD (I have 2 SSDs, one for Windows and one for my files).

Regards,

Marco
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Anonymous

2015-10-23T10:43:03+00:00

Hi Doug,

If I actually had a "Quick Access" item showing in my open dialog, that would be great.

But I only have "Favorites" showing at the top. I scrolled down the tree, but there simply is no Quick Access.

(Windows 8.1 Pro 64, Office 2016)
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Anonymous

2015-10-23T11:10:08+00:00

Hi Pandelume,

'Favorites' should be what you're looking for.

See the original answer to my question by Suzanne S. Barnhill:

"You can then use Ctrl+O or an Open button on the QAT to go directly to the classic Open dialog, which is an Explorer window in which you can add Favorites to the Navigation pane. "

Apparently, depending on your Windows version, what you are looking for could be named either Quick Access or Favorites.

You should be able to add any folder/path you wish following the tip from Doug Robbins - Word MVP (see above for the full answer with screen shots:

"If you right click on Quick access, the following list of actions appears and by using the Pin current folder to Quick access, you can add the places that you require to that group."

Basically you navigate to the folder you wish to add, and then right-click on Favorites/Quick Access to Pin that folder of your choice to the Favorites/Quick Access menu.

You can do this for multiple folders of your choice.

Hope this helps.
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