Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 25, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Excel allows you to maintain a list of the most-recently used (MRU) files. This list can record the names of up to the last nine workbooks opened and edited within Excel. Understand that nine workbooks is the default; the user can actually change the number of workbooks that can be maintained in the list. See the tip MRU Files Won't Display for more information.
If you want to grab the names of the MRU files and insert those names in a worksheet, you can use the following macro:
Sub MostRecent() Dim J As Integer For J = 1 To Application.RecentFiles.Count Cells(J, 1) = Application.RecentFiles(J).Name Next J End Sub
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9783) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Grabbing the MRU List.
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2021-09-25 10:33:31
J. Woolley
My Excel Toolbox includes the ListRecentFiles([AddPath]) dynamic array function. In older versions of Excel you can use it with the SpillArray function like this:
=SpillArray(ListRecentFiles([AddPath]))
See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/
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