Open recent files command on Quick access toolbar in office 2013

October 24, 2014

How to place "open recent files" command on Quick access toolbar in MS Word 2013

 

I just upgraded to Office 2013 and have found that one of my most used shortcuts appears to no longer be available.   The icon that I could place on the quick access toolbar (QAT) to display a list of recently open files is no longer available.  I understand I can reach this list by clicking on file then click open then see the list.  If anyone from Microsoft sees this post – please consider allowing your customers the option and convenience of the former method and add the functionality back in the next update available for MS Word 2013.  If anyone knows how to get that shortcut back on the quick access toolbar I would surely appreciate telling me how to do this. I know how to customize the QAT the option just isn’t there.

 

Thank you

Answer
Answer

On the More Commands dialog, there is an Import/Export button at the bottom right.  Export your current settings, it will create a Excel/Access/Word/appname Customizations.exportedUI file, defaulting to your My Documents folder.

You can open this exportedUI file with Notepad, it has a list of the current customizations in xml format.  There are a series of nodes available, each beginning with a "<mso:" and ending with "/>".  The sections labeled as "control" have named idQ and visible parameters.  Find one with a named idQ parameter that you would like your Recent Files to be located after, place your cursor after the closing "/>" and paste in:

<mso:control idQ="mso:FileOpenRecentFile" visible="true" insertBeforeQ="mso:FileNewDefault"/>

Save the file, and re-import it into your application.  There may be some more tricks to this, but it seemed to work for my Access application.

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Answer
Answer

Here's a way to get the same functionality.

In the Visual Basic Editor

  1. Insert a UserForm in the Normal template
  2. Name the form in the Properties window frmRecentFiles
  3. Change the Caption of the form to "Recent Files - Double click on a file to open it"
  4. Insert a Listbox into the form that is wide enough to display the path and filename of the recent files
  5. Right click on the UserForm and select View Code
  6. Copy and paste the following code into Code window

    Private Sub lstRecentFiles_DblClick(ByVal Cancel As MSForms.ReturnBoolean)
    On Error Resume Next
    Documents.Open lstRecentFiles.List(lstRecentFiles.ListIndex)
    Me.hide
    End Sub

    Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
    Dim objAllRecentFiles As Object
    Dim WSHShell, RegKey, rFile
    Set WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    Set objAllRecentFiles = Application.RecentFiles
    RegKey = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word\File MRU\"
    For Each rFile In objAllRecentFiles
        Me.lstRecentFiles.AddItem Mid(WSHShell.RegRead(RegKey & "Item " & rFile.Index), InStr(WSHShell.RegRead(RegKey & "Item " & rFile.Index), "*") + 1)
    Next rFile
    End Sub

  7. Insert a module into the Normal template and in that module, create a macro that contains the following code:

    Dim myform As frmRecentFiles
    Set myform = New frmRecentFiles
    myform.Show
    Set myform = Nothing

Add a button to the Quick Access Toolbar to run that Macro.

When you run that macro, a form like the following should appear

and Double clicking on a file will open it.

Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - MVP Office Apps & Services (Word)
dougrobbinsmvp@gmail.com
It's time to replace ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ with ‘Excellence, Opportunity & Civility’ - V Ramaswamy

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Last updated July 23, 2024 Views 15,163 Applies to: