Remove Recent Documents List Word 2016 For Mac

When using Office 2016 to view or edit a Word/Excel/PowerPoint document, you will find it usually shows a list of recently accessed documents. The list can help you quickly open your recently used documents. However, sometimes when you share a computer with someone else, you may not want your critical documents to be seen or accessed by that person. Luckily, Microsoft Office app comes with the feature allowing you to clear or disable recent documents in Word/Excel/PowerPoint. Now, this page will show you how to clear or disable recent documents in Word/Excel 2016 app.

Option 1: Clear your recent documents in Word/Excel 2016

Apr 25, 2019 If you have Word to open directly in a new document, do this: Open Word and select File. Select Open from the left menu. Right click a document from the center pane and select Clear unpinned Documents. In Word 2016, the AutoRecovery folder is buried deep in the system and requires your Mac to display hidden files, so the first step is to reveal these secret folders, to do so we recommend. The only option is to go into the Recent pane of the Open dialog where you can right-click individual files & select the Remove from Recent command. Search for the original document. Windows 10 and Windows 7. On the taskbar, select the Start or Search icon.; Type the document name, and then press Enter. If the File list contains the document, double-click the document to open it in Word.; If the File list does not contain the file, go to Option 2.; Search for Word backup files.

Step 1: Start any one Office 2016 app, such as Word.

Step 2: On the left side of the window, you will see a list of recently accessed Word document on your computer. Right-click on any one document, and then select Clear unpinned Documents.

Step 3: Click Yes to confirm the dialog as shown below. Then your recently opened Word document will be removed from the list.

Option 2: Disable recent documents list in Word/Excel 2016

Following take Word 2016 app as an example.

Step 1: Use Word 2016 app to open any one Word document.

Microsoft Word Mac Clear Recent Documents

Step 2: Click File -> Options.

Step 3: In the Word Options dialog, select the Advanced tab, and scroll down to locate the Display section. Generally, it shows 25 recent items by default. To disable showing recent documents list, delete the value '25' and type '0' in the box behind Show this number of Recent Documents, and then click OK to confirm. This action will not only clear your recent Word documents but also permanently disable the Recent Documents list showing in Word 2016.

Warm Tips: In order to prevent others from accessing your recently used Office document, it’s actually not enough to only clear or disable Recent Documents list in Word/Excel/PowerPoint app because your recent documents also can show up in Recent files in Windows File Explorer.

Word Download

Hence, you also need to clear the documents from the Recent files list. Or you can disable Quick Access in File Explorer if you are using Windows 10.