How to Get Rid of Recent Documents in Word
If you’re using Microsoft Word and find that the list of recent documents is cluttering up your interface, you might be wondering how to get rid of recent documents in Word. The recent documents feature is convenient for quickly accessing files you’ve recently worked on, but it can also be intrusive if you prefer to keep your document list private or minimal. In this article, we’ll guide you through the steps to remove recent documents from Word on both Windows and Mac operating systems.
Step 1: Access the Word Options
First, open Microsoft Word. On Windows, you can do this by clicking on the “File” menu at the top left corner of the screen. On a Mac, you’ll find the “Word” menu at the top left. From there, select “Options” to open the Word Options dialog box.
Step 2: Navigate to the Advanced Tab
In the Word Options dialog box, you’ll see several tabs at the top. Click on the “Advanced” tab to view advanced settings for Word.
Step 3: Modify the Display of Recent Files
Within the Advanced tab, scroll down to the “Display” section. You’ll find an option called “Show this number of recent files” with a spin button next to it. By default, this number is set to 25, but you can adjust it to show fewer recent files. If you want to remove all recent documents, set this number to 0.
Step 4: Clear Recent Files
To completely remove all recent documents from the list, click on the “Clear All” button under the “Display” section. This will clear the list of recent documents from the Word interface.
Step 5: Save Your Changes
After clearing the recent documents, make sure to click “OK” to save your changes. Word will apply the new settings, and the list of recent documents should now be empty.
Additional Tips
– If you want to remove recent documents from a specific template, you can do so by opening the template and following the same steps.
– If you have a shared computer or use Word on multiple devices, clearing recent documents on one device will not affect the list on other devices.
– For a more permanent solution, you can also disable the recent documents feature by modifying the Windows Registry or the macOS Keychain.
By following these steps, you should be able to get rid of recent documents in Word and maintain a cleaner, more organized workspace.
