Opening Files In Excel 2013 vs. Excel 2010
If you’ve recently migrated from Excel 2010 to 2013, you may have noticed that your old file-opening shortcuts don’t work the same. Here’s how to adjust without a hitch. I summarize the shortcuts at the bottom.
Open Recent Files: Excel 2013 vs. Excel 2010
To open recent files in Excel 2010, you could type Alt-F-R (File > Recent), which took you to a list of Recent files that you could open quickly (by clicking or typing the hot key).
You can do the same thing in Excel 2013 with Alt-F-R — the screen just looks different:
In Excel 2013 (but not Excel 2010) you actually go to the exact same screen as above when typing Ctrl+O (or Alt-F-O, or File > Open). In Excel 2013 I guess Microsoft assumes most people are opening a recent file when they open a file (thus Ctrl+O shows you a list of recent files). The downside of Ctrl+O, for me, is that it requires your right hand, while Alt-F-R is left-handed, so I prefer Alt-F-R (you may be different). When opening recent files, take your pick in Excel 2013: Alt-F-R or Ctrl+O or Alt-F-O (they go to the same screen).
Open: Excel 2013 vs. Excel 2010
In Excel 2010, Ctrl+O took you right into your most recent directory via the “Open” dialog box (it looks like Windows Explorer). This presented a quick and convenient way to navigate to another directory, or to “browse” directories — see below.
This method is gone in Excel 2013. As mentioned above, in Excel 2013, Ctrl+O takes you to the same screen as Alt-F-R (pictured earlier). It does not take you into the “Open” dialog box with a list of directories.
But have no fear, because in its place, there’s another method, albeit a little slower. You have to do Alt-F-R-C-B (File > Recent > Computer > Browse). This takes you to your friendly old “Open” dialog box where you can navigate directories as before.
The good news is that you can do this all (Alt-F-R-C-B) with your left hand in Excel 2013 (whereas Ctrl+O requires your right hand in Excel 2010). (You can also do Alt-F-O-C-B, which is more intuitive, but it requires your right hand).
Conclusion
With a few simple tweaks, you can get right back on your horse and resume your high speed Excel work.
Here are the shortcuts we covered:
Open Recent Files (Excel 2010 and Excel 2013): Alt-F-R
Open Files by browsing directories (Excel 2010): Ctrl+O
Open Files by browsing directories (Excel 2013): Alt-F-R-C-B (or Alt-F-O-C-B)
If you’ve got something better, let me know!
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