How to Delete Recent Documents in Microsoft Word or Excel

Easy ways clear recent documents in Word

Written by Rain Kengly

Last Updated: May 30, 2025 Fact Checked

When you open Microsoft Word or Excel, you'll usually see a list of the most recent files you worked on. If you don't want to see this list, you can easily remove it. Here's how to delete your recent documents in Word or Excel.

Delete the Recently Opened Documents in Office 365

To clear files in your Recent list, click File and select Options in the bottom-left corner. Click the Advanced tab. Under the Display header, set "Show this number of Recent Documents" to "0" and click OK.

Steps

Download Article

1
Open Microsoft Word or Excel. If you already have a file open, click File in the top-left corner to navigate to the home page.
- If you want to remove an individual file from the Recent list, right-click the file in the list and select Remove from list.^{[1]
  X
  Trustworthy Source
  
  Microsoft Support
  Technical support and product information from Microsoft.
  
  Go to source}
This is at the bottom-left corner. A new window will open.

Advertisement
You can find this tab in the left panel.
This section is about halfway down the page; you'll need to scroll down to see it.
5
Set the number of Recent documents to "0". This is the first option underneath the Display header: Show this number of Recent Documents.
- You can use the down-arrow to change the number, or you can delete the current number and manually enter "0".
6
Click OK. This is at the bottom-right corner. Your changes will be saved.
- When you click File to go to the home page again, you'll no longer see any documents in the Recent section.
- If you still see documents, restart Microsoft Word/Excel fully.

Community Q&A

Search

Add New Question

Question

How can I delete individual files?

Community Answer

Open all files, then hold the shift key and delete key until all of the files you want to delete have been selected.

Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
Yes No

Not Helpful 25 Helpful 16