TLC Tips of the Week

TLC Tips of the Week: from Helen Olberg

This week’s tip applies to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

You’ve probably already used the feature for retrieving files you've recently opened. It's appropriately known as the "recently used file list" and is located at the bottom of the File menu of each application, as well as in the New Document / Workbook / Presentation) Task Pane. By default, the File menu and Task Pane show you the four most recently opened documents. To retrieve a recently opened file, either click the menu item File > the filename-you-want at the bottom of the File menu list or click the filename from the top of the Task Pane.

The list of four filenames is nice, but did you ever lose the location of your file because it was ‘bumped’ from the list? Bummer! Then you have to 1) remember where it is, 2) click the Open button, and 3) navigate to it.

You don't have to live with just four recently used files. You can choose any number up to nine. Here's how:

1. Click the menu item Tools > Options.

2. Click the General tab.

3. In the box next to "Recently used files list," type the number of files you'd like your File menu or Task Pane to display. If you don't want recently used files to appear on the File menu or in the Task Pane (some people do have secrets), uncheck the box.

4. Click OK to lock in your choice.

As a part of the Mailbox cleanup, Outlook can search for messages by either age or size. If you want to locate messages that are more than 30 days old, enter 30 in the top field; then click Find. Outlook will locate all matching messages and display them in another window. In this window, you can sort your messages and select those to delete.

Select all of them by clicking anywhere in the bottom pane and holding down the Ctrl A keys. Select only the ones you want to delete (hold down the Ctrl or Shift key as you click individual messages), then press the Delete key. This action will send them to the Deleted Items folder. You may want to click the Empty button to permanently delete the contents of the Deleted Items folder.

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