MS Excel Documents May Not Show in Recent Documents List

• Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, versions 5.0, 5.0a
• Microsoft Office for the Macintosh, version 4.2.1

SYMPTOMS

When you click Recent Documents on the Apple Menu, Microsoft Excel documents may not appear on the list.

CAUSE

This may happen when you are running Microsoft Excel under System 7.5.3, System 7.5.3 Revision 2, or System 7.6.

WORKAROUND

To add a Microsoft Excel document to the Recent Documents list, do the following for each file you want to list:

1. Select the file you want to add to the Recent Documents list.

2. On the File menu, click Make Alias.

   The file name will contain the word "alias" at the end of it.

3. Move the alias to the following folder:

        System Folder: Apple Menu Items: Recent Documents
   

4. Rename the alias to its original name (remove the word "alias" from the end.)

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

The Recent Documents menu item on the Apple menu is controlled by the Apple Menu Options control panel. Through this control panel, you can choose the number of files that appear in the Recent Documents list. You can move an alias directly to the Recent Documents folder, but if there are more files in this folder than are specified in the control panel, the document you added may not appear on the list.

There have been changes made to the Apple Menu Options control panel in System 7.5.3, System 7.5.3 Revision 2, and System 7.6 that affect the way this control panel works with the Recent Documents folder.

For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q152025
   TITLE     : System Changes in Macintosh System 7.5 Update 2.0, Part 1

   ARTICLE-ID: Q152491
   TITLE     : Changes with Macintosh System 7.5 Update 2.0, Part 2

   ARTICLE-ID: Q152495
   TITLE     : Changes with Macintosh System 7.5 Update 2.0, Part 3