A click in time saves nine

Q: I like Excel 2010 much better than Excel 2003, but it now takes two clicks (File, Recent) to access my recently used files, instead of just one. Is this a step backward, and is there anything I can do about it?

A: You are not the first person to complain about this. Microsoft received numerous complaints about this problem upon releasing the Excel 2010 beta product for public review and, accordingly, added a solution to the final edition of Excel 2010, as follows: From the File tab, select Recent and scroll down to the bottom of the list of Recent Workbooks. There you will find a check box labeled Quickly access this number of Recent Workbooks, along with a spinner, as pictured below.

Place a check in the box and adjust the spinner to display the desired number of recently used files. Thereafter, Excel will display your most recently used files on the File tab menu for fast, one-click access as shown below.

As another option, you can add the list of recently used files to your Quick Access Toolbar as follows: Click the dropdown arrow located at the far-right side of the Quick Access Toolbar and select Open Recent File. This action adds the Open Recent File icon (pictured below) to your Quick Access Toolbar, thereby providing you with one-click access to your Recent Workbooks listing.