Remembering Commonly Used Workbooks

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated December 29, 2017)

7

When you work with the same workbooks over and over again, you may want to come up with a quick way to get to those workbooks. This can be easily done in Excel; just follow these steps if you are using Excel 2007:

  1. Click the Office button.
  2. Hover the mouse pointer over the first three options you see (New, Open, or Save). Excel displays, at the right, a list of recent workbooks you've used.
  3. Click the push-pin icon that appears to the right of any workbooks you use regularly.

If you are using Excel 2010 or Excel 2013 then the steps are slightly different:

  1. Display the File tab of the ribbon.
  2. If you are using Excel 2010, click Recent at the left side of the dialog box. If you are using Excel 2013, click Open at the left side of the dialog box. In either case, Excel shows you a list of the most recent workbooks you've used.
  3. Scroll through the list of workbooks until you see the one you want to use regularly.
  4. Click the push-pin icon that appears to the right of the workbook in the list. (You may need to hover the mouse over the workbook name in order to see the push-pin icon.) Excel moves the workbook to the top of the list of files.
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for any other workbooks you want to "remember."

That's it. You can now access these commonly used workbooks at any time by simply displaying the recent workbook list where they will always be shown at the top of the list.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8489) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is 1 + 3?

2018-01-02 11:14:52

ANNE MALONEY

This is a useful tip. Thanks.

2017-12-29 08:27:54

Brian Primeau

Instantly useful tip!

2016-03-09 08:59:30

Mark

I've been using the "pinned" list in Excel forever. A recent upgrade to Excel 2013 was done and my pinned workbooks get unpinned, typically across system restarts.

Any clues??

2014-06-15 20:47:36

Tony

Interesting tip. Never thought of pinning in that view.

I have Excel (and Word) pinned to my Taskbar. That's where I look for recently used workbooks or docs, and I have used the pinning option in that area instead.

2014-06-03 15:26:09

Jim Autrey

Excellent tip! When I click on multiple workbooks, they are all brought to the top of the list. Also, I can pin the "Recent Places" (directories) in the event I wish to open the directory and search for a file. This tip also works for other Microsoft Office applications (Access, PowerPoint, etc.).

2014-06-01 06:02:16

Willy Vanhaelen

It does work but you will only notice it after a while: a pinned "Recent Document" will never be pushed off the list.

2014-05-31 10:30:45

LMcIntyre

Doesn't seem to work. After pushing the pin ("pinning the site"), the only difference is that the Recently Used list shows the item with the pin "pushed." Using other worksheets, however, puts those other worksheets at the top of the Recently Used list, eventually pushing my "pinned" worksheet off the bottom of the list, just as if it weren't pinned. I can't see that "pinning" does anything other than change the appearance of the pin graphic.

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