Customizing your list of recently used files in Excel can be useful. For example, you might want to “pin” a file if you need to access it often, or you might want to see more (or fewer) items in the list. Here are three different ways to customize your list.

Show more (or fewer) items in the list

• In Excel, head to File > Options > Advanced. 
• In the Display section, you’ll see Show this number of Recent Workbooks, where you can adjust the number depending on how many items you want to see. 

Pin a file

This trick is useful if you’re always opening the same spreadsheet in Excel. You can “pin” items in your recently used files list, which keeps the file in the list no matter how many other files you open.

• Click on File > Open to see your list of recently used files.
• When you hover over a file in the list, you’ll see a horizontal green pin icon, which you can click on in order to pin it.
• Once you do that, the pin will turn vertical, meaning the file is now pinned. No matter how other files you open, the file will always stay accessible there.

Refresh the list

Sometimes you might want to refresh your list, so that you can start from scratch.

• Click on File > Open and right-click on an item in your list.
• Click Clear unpinned Workbooks. The list will clear, and only your pinned items will remain.

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