Editing MRU File List?

Does anyone know if it is possible to edit the MRU file list in Word? Here's
the point: I know that it is possible to shut off the MRU feature entirely or
alter the number of entries it retains. But is it possible to delete [or
edit] entries (from both the File menu and the Task Pane) to prevent the
inclusion of files that I have manually deleted from the My Documents folder
[or correctly link to docs I have moved from their original locations to
sub-folders]? Deleting the shortcuts in Documents and
Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent does not work. I've
tried that.

--WIN-XP(SP2)-Home
--Office XP (SP3)

See http://www.gmayor.com/clear_recently_used_file_list.htm which explains
how to clear the list of either just one entry or the lot.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to edit the MRU file list in Word?
Here's the point: I know that it is possible to shut off the MRU
feature entirely or alter the number of entries it retains. But is it
possible to delete [or edit] entries (from both the File menu and the
Task Pane) to prevent the inclusion of files that I have manually
deleted from the My Documents folder [or correctly link to docs I
have moved from their original locations to sub-folders]? Deleting
the shortcuts in Documents and Settings\User\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent does not work. I've tried that.

--WIN-XP(SP2)-Home
--Office XP (SP3)

Thanks Graham. The Ctrl + Alt + hyphen approach worked on a selective basis
as you suggested.

For your further information, and the benefit of anyone else viewing this
exchange, the entries for a deleted file were erased from both the File menu
and the Task Pane when the "fat" hyphen was placed over the entry in just the
File menu. However, the opposite approach did not work, i.e., trying to
delete the entry from the Task Pane generated an error message to the effect
that Word could not find the file. The entry was erased subsequently by
erasing it from the File menu. The File menu closes after the fat hyphen
treatment and the erasure can be verified by clicking on File again. The
Task Pane has to be closed and reopened to verify the deletion of the entry
there.

I tested the approach with a file that had not been deleted to see if
clicking the fat hyphen on the Task Pane entry would work. I could not get it
to do so, because the hyphen reverted to an arrow when I placed it over the
entry and the file opened. Meanwhile, I accidentally eliminated the "Task
Pane" entry from the View menu whilst experimenting with this technique. I am
going to try a system restore. If that does not work, Graham, how do I get
that menu choice back?

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

See http://www.gmayor.com/clear_recently_used_file_list.htm which explains
how to clear the list of either just one entry or the lot.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to edit the MRU file list in Word?
Here's the point: I know that it is possible to shut off the MRU
feature entirely or alter the number of entries it retains. But is it
possible to delete [or edit] entries (from both the File menu and the
Task Pane) to prevent the inclusion of files that I have manually
deleted from the My Documents folder [or correctly link to docs I
have moved from their original locations to sub-folders]? Deleting
the shortcuts in Documents and Settings\User\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent does not work. I've tried that.

--WIN-XP(SP2)-Home
--Office XP (SP3)

I will amend my web page to comment on the task pane. I guess I need to add
greater emphasis to the fact that it is a *destructive* cursor? To get the
required menu entry back, select tools customize commands view and
drag the Task Pane entry back to the menu.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Thanks Graham. The Ctrl + Alt + hyphen approach worked on a selective
basis as you suggested.

For your further information, and the benefit of anyone else viewing
this exchange, the entries for a deleted file were erased from both
the File menu and the Task Pane when the "fat" hyphen was placed over
the entry in just the File menu. However, the opposite approach did
not work, i.e., trying to delete the entry from the Task Pane
generated an error message to the effect that Word could not find the
file. The entry was erased subsequently by erasing it from the File
menu. The File menu closes after the fat hyphen treatment and the
erasure can be verified by clicking on File again. The Task Pane has
to be closed and reopened to verify the deletion of the entry there.

I tested the approach with a file that had not been deleted to see if
clicking the fat hyphen on the Task Pane entry would work. I could
not get it to do so, because the hyphen reverted to an arrow when I
placed it over the entry and the file opened. Meanwhile, I
accidentally eliminated the "Task Pane" entry from the View menu
whilst experimenting with this technique. I am going to try a system
restore. If that does not work, Graham, how do I get that menu choice
back?

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

See http://www.gmayor.com/clear_recently_used_file_list.htm which
explains how to clear the list of either just one entry or the lot.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to edit the MRU file list in
Word? Here's the point: I know that it is possible to shut off the
MRU
feature entirely or alter the number of entries it retains. But is
it possible to delete [or edit] entries (from both the File menu
and the Task Pane) to prevent the inclusion of files that I have
manually deleted from the My Documents folder [or correctly link to
docs I
have moved from their original locations to sub-folders]? Deleting
the shortcuts in Documents and Settings\User\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent does not work. I've tried that.

--WIN-XP(SP2)-Home
--Office XP (SP3)

Web page now updated

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




Graham Mayor wrote:
I will amend my web page to comment on the task pane. I guess I need
to add greater emphasis to the fact that it is a *destructive*
cursor? To get the required menu entry back, select tools customize
commands view and drag the Task Pane entry back to the menu.


MikeyD wrote:
Thanks Graham. The Ctrl + Alt + hyphen approach worked on a selective
basis as you suggested.

For your further information, and the benefit of anyone else viewing
this exchange, the entries for a deleted file were erased from both
the File menu and the Task Pane when the "fat" hyphen was placed over
the entry in just the File menu. However, the opposite approach did
not work, i.e., trying to delete the entry from the Task Pane
generated an error message to the effect that Word could not find the
file. The entry was erased subsequently by erasing it from the File
menu. The File menu closes after the fat hyphen treatment and the
erasure can be verified by clicking on File again. The Task Pane has
to be closed and reopened to verify the deletion of the entry there.

I tested the approach with a file that had not been deleted to see if
clicking the fat hyphen on the Task Pane entry would work. I could
not get it to do so, because the hyphen reverted to an arrow when I
placed it over the entry and the file opened. Meanwhile, I
accidentally eliminated the "Task Pane" entry from the View menu
whilst experimenting with this technique. I am going to try a system
restore. If that does not work, Graham, how do I get that menu choice
back?

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

See http://www.gmayor.com/clear_recently_used_file_list.htm which
explains how to clear the list of either just one entry or the lot.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to edit the MRU file list in
Word? Here's the point: I know that it is possible to shut off the
MRU
feature entirely or alter the number of entries it retains. But is
it possible to delete [or edit] entries (from both the File menu
and the Task Pane) to prevent the inclusion of files that I have
manually deleted from the My Documents folder [or correctly link to
docs I
have moved from their original locations to sub-folders]? Deleting
the shortcuts in Documents and Settings\User\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent does not work. I've tried that.

--WIN-XP(SP2)-Home
--Office XP (SP3)

I did know that it was destructive, but I did not realize that it was still
operative, because it happened when I was trying to get it to work on the
Task Pane entries. I had tried to click it on an undeleted file name to see
if the hyphen would work there, but all it did is open the file. I then
closed the Task Pane and then tried to reopen it to see if the entry had been
erased from the Task Pane. What got erased is the Task Pane enry in the View
menu. I have in fact restored, but the Task Pane button is still missing from
the short View menu. It is there only on the Toolbars flyout sub-menu. I have
been unsuccessful trying to get it back onto the main View menu. I cannot get
your suggestion to work. It will not move the Task Pane onto the short View
menu. In a different user accouint on this machine the Task Pane is on both
the shorter View menu and in the Toolbars sub-menu flyout in the View menu.
I'm not trying to put it on the menu bar, just onto the View menu itself
(where it will appear twice, once under View and also under ViewToolbars).

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

I will amend my web page to comment on the task pane. I guess I need to add
greater emphasis to the fact that it is a *destructive* cursor? To get the
required menu entry back, select tools customize commands view and
drag the Task Pane entry back to the menu.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Thanks Graham. The Ctrl + Alt + hyphen approach worked on a selective
basis as you suggested.

For your further information, and the benefit of anyone else viewing
this exchange, the entries for a deleted file were erased from both
the File menu and the Task Pane when the "fat" hyphen was placed over
the entry in just the File menu. However, the opposite approach did
not work, i.e., trying to delete the entry from the Task Pane
generated an error message to the effect that Word could not find the
file. The entry was erased subsequently by erasing it from the File
menu. The File menu closes after the fat hyphen treatment and the
erasure can be verified by clicking on File again. The Task Pane has
to be closed and reopened to verify the deletion of the entry there.

I tested the approach with a file that had not been deleted to see if
clicking the fat hyphen on the Task Pane entry would work. I could
not get it to do so, because the hyphen reverted to an arrow when I
placed it over the entry and the file opened. Meanwhile, I
accidentally eliminated the "Task Pane" entry from the View menu
whilst experimenting with this technique. I am going to try a system
restore. If that does not work, Graham, how do I get that menu choice
back?

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

See http://www.gmayor.com/clear_recently_used_file_list.htm which
explains how to clear the list of either just one entry or the lot.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to edit the MRU file list in
Word? Here's the point: I know that it is possible to shut off the
MRU
feature entirely or alter the number of entries it retains. But is
it possible to delete [or edit] entries (from both the File menu
and the Task Pane) to prevent the inclusion of files that I have
manually deleted from the My Documents folder [or correctly link to
docs I
have moved from their original locations to sub-folders]? Deleting
the shortcuts in Documents and Settings\User\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent does not work. I've tried that.

--WIN-XP(SP2)-Home
--Office XP (SP3)

You can reset the toolbars to default by resetting the registry entry that
controls them. This also resets tools options and the autoformat
settings - See
http://www.gmayor.com/my_toolbars_are_missing.htm or
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/MissingMenusEtc.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word



MikeyD wrote:
I did know that it was destructive, but I did not realize that it was
still operative, because it happened when I was trying to get it to
work on the Task Pane entries. I had tried to click it on an
undeleted file name to see if the hyphen would work there, but all
it did is open the file. I then closed the Task Pane and then tried
to reopen it to see if the entry had been erased from the Task Pane.
What got erased is the Task Pane enry in the View menu. I have in
fact restored, but the Task Pane button is still missing from the
short View menu. It is there only on the Toolbars flyout sub-menu. I
have been unsuccessful trying to get it back onto the main View menu.
I cannot get your suggestion to work. It will not move the Task Pane
onto the short View menu. In a different user accouint on this
machine the Task Pane is on both the shorter View menu and in the
Toolbars sub-menu flyout in the View menu. I'm not trying to put it
on the menu bar, just onto the View menu itself (where it will appear
twice, once under View and also under ViewToolbars).

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

I will amend my web page to comment on the task pane. I guess I need
to add greater emphasis to the fact that it is a *destructive*
cursor? To get the required menu entry back, select tools
customize commands view and drag the Task Pane entry back to the
menu.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Thanks Graham. The Ctrl + Alt + hyphen approach worked on a
selective basis as you suggested.

For your further information, and the benefit of anyone else viewing
this exchange, the entries for a deleted file were erased from both
the File menu and the Task Pane when the "fat" hyphen was placed
over the entry in just the File menu. However, the opposite
approach did
not work, i.e., trying to delete the entry from the Task Pane
generated an error message to the effect that Word could not find
the file. The entry was erased subsequently by erasing it from the
File menu. The File menu closes after the fat hyphen treatment and
the erasure can be verified by clicking on File again. The Task
Pane has
to be closed and reopened to verify the deletion of the entry there.

I tested the approach with a file that had not been deleted to see
if clicking the fat hyphen on the Task Pane entry would work. I
could
not get it to do so, because the hyphen reverted to an arrow when I
placed it over the entry and the file opened. Meanwhile, I
accidentally eliminated the "Task Pane" entry from the View menu
whilst experimenting with this technique. I am going to try a system
restore. If that does not work, Graham, how do I get that menu
choice back?

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

See http://www.gmayor.com/clear_recently_used_file_list.htm which
explains how to clear the list of either just one entry or the lot.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to edit the MRU file list in
Word? Here's the point: I know that it is possible to shut off the
MRU
feature entirely or alter the number of entries it retains. But is
it possible to delete [or edit] entries (from both the File menu
and the Task Pane) to prevent the inclusion of files that I have
manually deleted from the My Documents folder [or correctly link
to docs I
have moved from their original locations to sub-folders]? Deleting
the shortcuts in Documents and Settings\User\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent does not work. I've tried that.

--WIN-XP(SP2)-Home
--Office XP (SP3)

Hi Graham:

The Bard of Avon probably wrote something that would be appropriate for me
to cite, but I can't think of it now. Suffice it to say--SUCCESS!

Thanks very much. I solved the problem with advice from the second link you
provided, which, in turn, led to an article entitled "How to restore a
command to a menu." I selected Method 1 and it worked.

Clearly, the menu entry I deleted is not, in fact, a registry item,
otherwise my system restore would have solved that problem. Indeed, since the
solution involved resetting normal.dot, that is sufficient to prove it is a
user setting that was involved and nothing more exotic.

On the other hand, the MRU list does apparantly have something to do with
the registry, inasmuch as my restore replaced all the entries I had earlier
successfully deleted with the fat hyphen. What intrigues me about that is the
fact that the registry was the first and obvious place I looked before I
posted my original message. A regedit text search failed to find entries for
any of the deleted .doc files still remaining in the registry. Which really
puzzled me, I must admit. Might the system restore also have restored some
data file containing the MRU list, do you know? (It is the only way the
deleted MRU entries could have been restored if they had not been registry
entries.)

I would like to fool around with this stuff, because we still have not dealt
with the second part of the question I posted, i.e., is it possible to edit
an MRU list entry to reflect a relocation of the .doc file.

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

You can reset the toolbars to default by resetting the registry entry that
controls them. This also resets tools options and the autoformat
settings - See
http://www.gmayor.com/my_toolbars_are_missing.htm or
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/MissingMenusEtc.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word



MikeyD wrote:
I did know that it was destructive, but I did not realize that it was
still operative, because it happened when I was trying to get it to
work on the Task Pane entries. I had tried to click it on an
undeleted file name to see if the hyphen would work there, but all
it did is open the file. I then closed the Task Pane and then tried
to reopen it to see if the entry had been erased from the Task Pane.
What got erased is the Task Pane enry in the View menu. I have in
fact restored, but the Task Pane button is still missing from the
short View menu. It is there only on the Toolbars flyout sub-menu. I
have been unsuccessful trying to get it back onto the main View menu.
I cannot get your suggestion to work. It will not move the Task Pane
onto the short View menu. In a different user accouint on this
machine the Task Pane is on both the shorter View menu and in the
Toolbars sub-menu flyout in the View menu. I'm not trying to put it
on the menu bar, just onto the View menu itself (where it will appear
twice, once under View and also under ViewToolbars).

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

I will amend my web page to comment on the task pane. I guess I need
to add greater emphasis to the fact that it is a *destructive*
cursor? To get the required menu entry back, select tools
customize commands view and drag the Task Pane entry back to the
menu.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Thanks Graham. The Ctrl + Alt + hyphen approach worked on a
selective basis as you suggested.

For your further information, and the benefit of anyone else viewing
this exchange, the entries for a deleted file were erased from both
the File menu and the Task Pane when the "fat" hyphen was placed
over the entry in just the File menu. However, the opposite
approach did
not work, i.e., trying to delete the entry from the Task Pane
generated an error message to the effect that Word could not find
the file. The entry was erased subsequently by erasing it from the
File menu. The File menu closes after the fat hyphen treatment and
the erasure can be verified by clicking on File again. The Task
Pane has
to be closed and reopened to verify the deletion of the entry there.

I tested the approach with a file that had not been deleted to see
if clicking the fat hyphen on the Task Pane entry would work. I
could
not get it to do so, because the hyphen reverted to an arrow when I
placed it over the entry and the file opened. Meanwhile, I
accidentally eliminated the "Task Pane" entry from the View menu
whilst experimenting with this technique. I am going to try a system
restore. If that does not work, Graham, how do I get that menu
choice back?

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

See http://www.gmayor.com/clear_recently_used_file_list.htm which
explains how to clear the list of either just one entry or the lot.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to edit the MRU file list in
Word? Here's the point: I know that it is possible to shut off the
MRU
feature entirely or alter the number of entries it retains. But is
it possible to delete [or edit] entries (from both the File menu
and the Task Pane) to prevent the inclusion of files that I have
manually deleted from the My Documents folder [or correctly link
to docs I
have moved from their original locations to sub-folders]? Deleting
the shortcuts in Documents and Settings\User\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent does not work. I've tried that.

--WIN-XP(SP2)-Home
--Office XP (SP3)

Instead of using the MRU for regularly used files, use the Work menu.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Hi Graham:

The Bard of Avon probably wrote something that would be appropriate
for me to cite, but I can't think of it now. Suffice it to
say--SUCCESS!

Thanks very much. I solved the problem with advice from the second
link you provided, which, in turn, led to an article entitled "How to
restore a command to a menu." I selected Method 1 and it worked.

Clearly, the menu entry I deleted is not, in fact, a registry item,
otherwise my system restore would have solved that problem. Indeed,
since the solution involved resetting normal.dot, that is sufficient
to prove it is a user setting that was involved and nothing more
exotic.

On the other hand, the MRU list does apparantly have something to do
with the registry, inasmuch as my restore replaced all the entries I
had earlier successfully deleted with the fat hyphen. What intrigues
me about that is the fact that the registry was the first and obvious
place I looked before I posted my original message. A regedit text
search failed to find entries for any of the deleted .doc files still
remaining in the registry. Which really puzzled me, I must admit.
Might the system restore also have restored some data file containing
the MRU list, do you know? (It is the only way the deleted MRU
entries could have been restored if they had not been registry
entries.)

I would like to fool around with this stuff, because we still have
not dealt with the second part of the question I posted, i.e., is it
possible to edit an MRU list entry to reflect a relocation of the
.doc file.

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

You can reset the toolbars to default by resetting the registry
entry that controls them. This also resets tools options and the
autoformat settings - See
http://www.gmayor.com/my_toolbars_are_missing.htm or
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/MissingMenusEtc.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word



MikeyD wrote:
I did know that it was destructive, but I did not realize that it
was still operative, because it happened when I was trying to get
it to
work on the Task Pane entries. I had tried to click it on an
undeleted file name to see if the hyphen would work there, but all
it did is open the file. I then closed the Task Pane and then tried
to reopen it to see if the entry had been erased from the Task Pane.
What got erased is the Task Pane enry in the View menu. I have in
fact restored, but the Task Pane button is still missing from the
short View menu. It is there only on the Toolbars flyout sub-menu. I
have been unsuccessful trying to get it back onto the main View
menu.
I cannot get your suggestion to work. It will not move the Task Pane
onto the short View menu. In a different user accouint on this
machine the Task Pane is on both the shorter View menu and in the
Toolbars sub-menu flyout in the View menu. I'm not trying to put it
on the menu bar, just onto the View menu itself (where it will
appear twice, once under View and also under ViewToolbars).

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

I will amend my web page to comment on the task pane. I guess I
need
to add greater emphasis to the fact that it is a *destructive*
cursor? To get the required menu entry back, select tools
customize commands view and drag the Task Pane entry back to
the menu.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Thanks Graham. The Ctrl + Alt + hyphen approach worked on a
selective basis as you suggested.

For your further information, and the benefit of anyone else
viewing this exchange, the entries for a deleted file were erased
from both the File menu and the Task Pane when the "fat" hyphen
was placed
over the entry in just the File menu. However, the opposite
approach did
not work, i.e., trying to delete the entry from the Task Pane
generated an error message to the effect that Word could not find
the file. The entry was erased subsequently by erasing it from the
File menu. The File menu closes after the fat hyphen treatment and
the erasure can be verified by clicking on File again. The Task
Pane has
to be closed and reopened to verify the deletion of the entry
there.

I tested the approach with a file that had not been deleted to see
if clicking the fat hyphen on the Task Pane entry would work. I
could
not get it to do so, because the hyphen reverted to an arrow when
I placed it over the entry and the file opened. Meanwhile, I
accidentally eliminated the "Task Pane" entry from the View menu
whilst experimenting with this technique. I am going to try a
system restore. If that does not work, Graham, how do I get that
menu
choice back?

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

See http://www.gmayor.com/clear_recently_used_file_list.htm which
explains how to clear the list of either just one entry or the
lot.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




MikeyD wrote:
Does anyone know if it is possible to edit the MRU file list in
Word? Here's the point: I know that it is possible to shut off
the MRU
feature entirely or alter the number of entries it retains. But
is it possible to delete [or edit] entries (from both the File
menu
and the Task Pane) to prevent the inclusion of files that I have
manually deleted from the My Documents folder [or correctly link
to docs I
have moved from their original locations to sub-folders]?
Deleting the shortcuts in Documents and
Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent does not
work. I've tried that.

--WIN-XP(SP2)-Home
--Office XP (SP3)

I have never looked at that option. Would those lists be amenable to editing
for the purpose of reflecting folder reassignments? You see, I am a highly
organized person and periodically "file" documents away in various
sub-folders, which is why the issue arises. I give it a look. Thanks for your
help.

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

Instead of using the MRU for regularly used files, use the Work menu.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org