Excel keeps track of the workbooks you've opened recently. When you're ready to resume work on workbook, it's often faster to open it from the Recent Workbook list. Let's take a look. You can find the list of recently opened workbooks on the File tab, under Recent.

Here you'll see a list of workbooks, with the most recently opened workbooks at the top. If there are files you use frequently, or if you're working on a project and want to make sure you have quick access to specific files during the project, you can 'pin' any file that appears in the list. When you pin a file, it stays at the top of the list until you unpin it again. There is a checkbox at the bottom of the recent files list that says 'Quickly access this number of recent workbooks'. If you check this box, and and enter a number, you'll see that number of recent files appear in the left column of the File tab.

The number represents files at the top of the list, and includes pinned files. You can adjust this value to whatever makes sense for you. Clear the checkbox to remove the files from the left column.

5 – The Bullet Proof Method For Finding Files. So far, the above four methods assume you know, or at least have an idea of the file name, and you didn't disable or clear Windows Recent Documents feature. But say you completely forgot the file name, where you saved it, or you prefer to protect your privacy and always clear your Recent Document. Your Numbers spreadsheet has been converted to a Microsoft Excel file! How to Convert Keynote files for Windows 10. Format a Hard Drive For Both Windows and Mac. Visual studio for mac create blank file. Convert Mac-Specific Files.

To the right of the Recent Workbooks list is the Recent Places list. This list tracks your most recently used folders. Like the recent workbooks list, you can pin certain folders, so that they always appear at the top of this list. You can remove both workbooks and folders from lists by right clicking, and selecting 'Remove from list'. If you'd like to clean up the list, you can clear all recent workbooks, except pinned workbooks, by right-clicking and selecting 'Clear unpinned workbooks'.