Why are files/folders in pop-up menus now chronological?

[Mark L]

I don't know if something changed in a recent auto-update, but all my office
products now organize files and folders in the pop-ups windows in order of
'last modified' rather than alphabetical. This is incredibly irritating.
Anyone know how to change it back?

 

[Daz UK]

Hi Mark,

If you mean the File Open and Save As type dialog windows, then these take
the order from the last time you sorted the folder from within Windows
Explorer or My Computer.

For example, if the folder is C:\Docs and you opened that folder from My
Computer and clicked on the Modified Date header of the window to sort by
most recently modified, then all future views on that folder by the logged on
user will show the same order, including Open and Save As dialogs.

The fix is to manually open the documents folder in Windows Explorer / My
Computer and click on the heading above the filenames to sort alphabetically,
then close the window. Now when you open that folder from a File Open or
Save As dialog it should be sorted alphabetically too.

Hope this helps,
Daz.

 

[Mark L]

Many thanks Daz.

I understand what you're suggesting, but this doesn't seem to solve my
problem. If, for example, I try to insert (attach) a file to an email
message in Outlook, the "Insert File" menu comes up with all files within a
folder ordered by the last date they were touched. However, if I open the
same folder with Explorer, they are arranged alphabetically. The Explorer
setting for file arrangements appears to be completely ignored. The same
problem appears in all Office applications when I envoke a command that opens
a menu to select files -- for example, if the window that appears to Open
File in Word or EXCEL organizes the files in the menu by date, even though
the same folder is arranged alphabetically when I open Explorer.

Very weird and extremely irritating.

Mark

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

What version of Office and Windows are you using?

In Windows Vista or 7, using Office 2007, applications remember how things
were arranged the last time you used a file dialog box. For example, if I
press Ctrl+O in Word 2007 (Open), set the view to Details, and click the
Name header, Word will now use that order next time by default. If I open
Excel and set the order to Data modified, Excel will now use that order by
default--and Word and Excel each remember their own separate defaults.

Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

 

[Mark L]

I'm still using Office 2003; pls don't encourage me to 2007 ... I'm
financially strapped and trying to maintain what I have.

If I press Ctrl+O in Word (or equivalent in EXCEL), or if I envoke the file
attachment option in Outlook, the resulting window does not offer the
convenient headers available in Explorer for selecting the desired method of
organizing files (by name, date, type, etc.) The window simply lists the
files in the selected folder. For the past 7 years, this presentation has
always been alphabetical. Now, for some reason the files are listed by date
and I don't know how to change it back. As I mentioned earlier, this isn't a
problem in Explorer, which is working fine.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I'm still using Office 2003; pls don't encourage me to 2007

Herb's not doing that; just letting you know how it works in HIS version of
Windows and Office.

Try this: Get to the File Open dialog box. Right click in the area where files
are displayed and choose "arrange icons by" then pick the option you want.

And thanks for asking ... One of my computers displays these dialogs oddly
(grouped mode, I think) and I had no idea why. Now I know. Much obliged.



... I'm

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

This is the first message in which you indicate which version of Office
you're using. In the absence of indicators to the contrary, I currently
assume Office 2007 running in Vista (gradually shifting the latter to
Windows 7, but it will be a while).

I don't have Office 2003 available to test anymore, however, I don't recall
having a problem getting Word 2003 to display and remember my preferred
sorting method (reverse sorted by date). If you've tried resetting the view
to alphabetical, and it's not being retained, however, my next guess would
be that you have a corrupted Data key in the registry--a failure for Word to
retain remembered defaults usually indicates registry corruption. This would
cover Word, but I don't know if Excel has a corresponding registry key or
what it might be called. The fact that both Word and Excel are failing to
remember the sort order, however, makes me think that it's a broader issue
than Word's Data key. This presumes that you've tried Steve's steps, but the
sort order isn't being retained.

--

Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

 

[Mark L]

FANTASTIC !! This did the trick. I had no idea I could right-click on the
open-field in these windows and change the viewing option. This fixed the
problem. MANY THANKS.

ALSO .. I apologize to Herb about the 2007 comment. I failed to note the
version I'm using.

Again, thanks to both of you!

Mark