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Excel Shortcuts for Open & Open Recent Files: Excel 2013 vs. Excel 2010

May 18, 2016 by terp Leave a Comment

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).

excel-2010-open-recent-files-file-tab

You can do the same thing in Excel 2013 with Alt-F-R — the screen just looks different:

excel-2013-open-recent-files-file-tab

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.

open-files-dialog-box-excel-2010

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.

excel-2013-open-files-directory

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!

Filed Under: Alt Shortcuts, Opening Files Tagged With: Alt Shortcuts, Excel Keyboard Shortcuts, Excel Shortcuts, Open

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