Cannot change the number of places to list in Recent Places in Word 2010, in Excel 2010, or in PowerPoint 2010

Symptoms

When you view the list of Recent Places in Backstage view in Microsoft Word 2010, in Microsoft Excel 2010, or in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, you cannot change the number of places to list in Recent Places.

Note To access Backstage view, click the File tab.

Workaround

Important

This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, see How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

To work around this issue, you must change the registry to indicate the number of places to list in Recent Places.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Exit all Office programs.

  2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

  3. Locate and then click to select one of the following registry subkeys:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Word\Place MRU

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Excel\Place MRU

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\PowerPoint\Place MRU

  4. After you select the subkey that is specified in step 3, right-click Max Display, and then click Modify.

  5. Click Decimal, and in the Value data box, type a number to represent the number of places that you want to list in Recent Places, and then click OK.

    Note By default, Max Display is set to 25.

  6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for each Office program for which you want to change the number of places that you want to list in Recent Places.

  7. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

Did this fix the problem?

Check whether the problem is fixed. If the problem is fixed, you are finished with this section. If the problem is not fixed, you can contact support.

More Information

For more information about Backstage view, see Changes in Word 2010.