Summary

• Microsoft Word 2016 Not Working
• Microsoft Word Is Not Working On Mac
• Microsoft Word Not Working Properly On Mac

If Microsoft Office Word 2016 or 2013 no longer shows Recent Documents below the Open option, you can not open an edited Word document via the Recent option. Relax! Follow the advice on this page, you'll efficiently restore the disappeared list of recent documents, and even recover the lost Word file with the help of EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.

How do I find recent documents in Word

Hi, For the last couple of days, the word app on my mac won't open. It bounces after clicking in the icon and then nothing happens. I have to force the app to shut down. All the other office apps are working fine. I downloaded the latest version of Mac OS. What should I do to fix this?

'The recent files list was always there whenever I open the File > Open option in Microsoft Office Word on Windows 10. However, not this time.

• Help articles. For help with Word: On the Menu bar, click Help and search for features, commands, and help articles. Or search online at Bing, Google, or support.office.com. Here's a sample of what's available.
• Apr 10, 2016 The fixes to solve word won’t open or not responding issue (Only for Mac): Update Microsoft Word to the latest version. Remove Adds-Ins. Re-open Word in Safe Mode. Correct invalid characters from the file name. Run Disk Utility to repair the disk volume errors and permissions.

The Excel, Notepad, and PowerPoint are all fine, whereas the Word 2016 is not showing recent documents anymore. I don't know what happened and I need help to restore the disappeared recent list so that I could continue using this function again.'

The Recent Documents option is regarded as quick access for Microsoft Office users to get their saved documents, excel, or powerpoint, etc. files. When you can't find a Word document on your local PC drive, the Recent Documents option can also help you quickly locate and access it.

However, according to some MS Office Word users, the Recent Document option may not show up in the Word application. If you happen to have this incident on your Windows PC, don't worry. In the following, you'll learn the causes that make Word Recent Documents option disappeared and how to recover it in Word 2016/2013.

Why is recent documents list not showing in Word

To bring the missing recent documents back to its list in the Windows operating system, you must figure out the exact causes in the first place. Mostly, there are three reasons that may disable the recent documents list showing up in Word application:

# 1. Recent Word files were manually removed from the Recent Documents list

Microsoft Office allows users to remove an individual file from the recently used file list with the option 'Remove from list'. In fact, you don't remove the file from your entire system unless you pressed 'Delete'.

If you have manually removed or deleted the recently opened or edited word documents from the Recent Documents list, you'll have to find and open your Word files one by one on your local drive or external storage devices.

# 2. Microsoft Office Word is logged out with no MS account

Sometimes, if you used to sign in with a Microsoft Office account in Word 2013, 2016 while editing documents, the Word application would record all the operations and changes that you have made into your MS account.

As a result, when you sign out with your MS Account in MS Word, you may lose some recordings, such as the Recent Document list recordings.

# 3. The Recent Documents list was disabled

Usually, the MS Office Word Recent Document list was enabled by default. However, due to false operation or personal needs, some users may disable this feature to speed up Microsoft Office Word on their computers. If it's so, the workarounds towards this issue are available in the next part to help.

Continue reading to check and apply a suitable solution to make the recent Word files re-appear in the list.

How to recover recent documents in Word on Windows 10/8/7

In this part, we're going to illustrate some practical solutions that you can pick up to bring the disappeared Recent Documents list back on your Word 2013/2016. The provided methods can also be applied to other versions of Microsoft Office applications like MS Excel, PPT, Word 2010, etc.

Microsoft Word 2016 Not Working

Fix 1. Sign In with MS Account to Make Recent Documents Show Up in Word

If you are currently logged out of your MS account, you can retry to sign in with your Microsoft Office account to bring the disappeared Recent Document list show up:

Step 1. Open a blank new Word file, click 'Sign in' at the right top corner and select 'Yes' to allow Office connect to the Internet.

Step 2. Sign in with your email address or phone number, click 'Next' to continue.

Step 3. Enter your password and click 'Sign in' to log in to your MS account.

Step 4. Now, you can open a new Word file, go to File > Open > Check the Recent Document list under Open.

If the recent Word files show up on the list, congratulations. You can directly access and open these files through this list. If nothing appears, follow the next fix to enable the Recent Documents list feature.

Fix 2. Disable and re-enable Recent Documents feature

If the Recent Document feature is disabled, you won't be able to view anything under the Open column in MS Word 2013, 2016. You can first try to disable this feature and then re-enable it with new settings in Word:

Step 1. Disable Recent Documents feature in Word

1. Open Word 2013/2016, click File -> Options -> Advanced.

2. Under Display, set 'Show this number of Recent Documents' to '0' and uncheck the box of 'Quickly access this number of Recent Documents'.

Step 2. Re-enable Recent Documents in MS Word

1. Open Advanced feature in Word by opening a new Word file, go to File > Options > Advanced.

2. Set the number '0' to '10' '15' '25' or other numbers as you like next to 'Show this number of Recent Documents'. If this number is set to zero, undoubtedly, you don't see a single recent document showing in this area.

3. Check the box of 'Quickly access this number of Recent Documents' and change the number '0' to '10' '15' '25' or other numbers as you like.

Step 3. Click 'OK' to keep all the changes, restart the Word application.

After this, you can open a new Word file, go to File > Open > Recent Documents to check your missing Word files from the list.

Bonus Tip: Restore Missing or Lost Word Documents

After making Word document files show up in the Recent Documents list, you can quickly access and open your files through this list. If MS Word doesn't bring up your desired Word file, don't worry. You can first try to search the document name on your PC, or check the Recycle Bin to see if you can find the file.

If nothing is found, the Word file is probably lost or missing. At this moment, reliable Office file recovery software is the best choice to bring your recently lost or missing documents back.

EaseUS file recovery software is able to help. No matter how you lost your files, it takes only 3 steps to scan and bring your lost files back:

Step 1. Choose the Word file location.

Do you know where you lost Word files? Choose the hard disk drive or a specific folder and click the San button. If it's on a USB flash drive or SD card, take one more step to connect it to your computer.

Step 2. Scan all lost data.

The software will start immediately scanning all lost data on the selected drive, and you'll see more and more data showing up in the scan results. After the scan, use the quickest way to the wanted Word documents by choosing 'Documents' from the drop-down list in 'Filter'.

Step 3. Select Word files and recover.

You're allowed to preview a Word file if you have Microsoft Word application installed on your computer. Finally, select the desired documents and click 'Recover'.

Further Word FAQs

On this page, we included two fixes of making Recent Documents show up in Word 2013, 2016. We also introduce a bonus tip to help you recover lost or deleted Word document on your computer.

Here, we also gathered some frequently asked questions about the MS Word document. If you are interested in one of them, continue reading and you may find a desired answer or satisfying solution toward your issues:

Question 1: How do I find my recent documents in Windows 10?

Answer: The recent documents option has been removed from Windows 10. However, you can still access all your recent files via Quick access on your PC.

Press Windows Key + E > Open File Explorer > Select 'Quick access' > Check all your recently viewed files or documents under Recent files.

Question 2: How do I find recent documents in Word?

Microsoft Word Is Not Working On Mac

Answer: Your Recent Documents list is under the File menu in Word. To open it, you need to launch the Word application, go to File > Open > Click 'Recent Documents' and then you will see a list of your recent documents.

You can simply click the document to open it. If you don't see anything below the Recent Document list, try the provided solutions on this page to fix it.

Question 3. How do I recover an unsaved Word document?

Answer: Microsoft Office has added this feature to automatically keep the unsaved document when you accidentally closed the Word or Excel application. To restore the unsaved Word file, you can simply relaunch Word app > Go to File > Open > Click 'Recover Unsaved Document' > Select the unsaved file and save it as .doc or .docx on another secure location.

If you have further questions on restoring lost or closed Word file without saving, refer to this link for more detailed solutions: 3 Ways to Recover Unsaved Word Document in Windows 10.

If you have more questions, try the Search options on our website (https://www.easeus.com) or go to the How-To tips page to find more solutions.

Summary

When you try to open a Word document on Mac document, Word stops opening. If you are faced with this issue and are willing to solve it, then follow the 3 solutions. If you have data loss problem after fixing the Word not opening issue, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac can do you a favor.

On this page, we have collected three practical solutions that can help fix the 'Word Not Opening' error on Mac. And if you mistakenly removed a Word file on Mac, let reliable Mac file recovery software as recommended here for help. Check out how to fix the not opening Word file to accessible again:

'Word 2016 on my Mac won't open. It flashes immediately by double-clicking and then closes unexpectedly. I didn't do anything or any change. How to fix it if Microsoft Word won't open at all?'

In addition to this situation, most users are also faced with these errors:

• The application Microsoft Word quit unexpectedly
• Microsoft Word cannot be opened because of a problem. Check with the developer to make sure Microsoft Word works with this version of Mac OS X

As Microsoft Word is widely used among people, owning some basic Word troubleshooting is recognized as an essential skill. Today you're going to learn three tricks in solving Word not opening on Mac. The given workarounds are applicable to all Word editions such as 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 2016.

1. Run Repair Disk Permissions

Step 1: On the 'Go' menu, click 'Utilities'. Start the Disk Utility program.

Step 2: Choose the primary hard disk drive for your computer. Then, click the 'First Aid' tab.

Step 3: Click 'Run' to repair the disk volume errors and permissions. When it finishes, click 'Done'.

2. Remove Word Preferences

Step 1: Open 'Library'. Usually, click 'GO' > 'Go to the folder', then type ~/Library

Step 2: Locate a file named as 'Preferences'.

Step 3: Find a file named as com.microsoft.Word.plist. Move the file to the desktop.

Start Word, and check whether the problem still occurs.

If the problem still occurs, exit Microsoft Word, and then restore the 'com.microsoft.word.prefs.plist' file to its original location. Then, go to Step 4.

If the problem seems to be resolved, you can move the file to the trash.

Note: If you do not locate the file, the program is using the default preferences.

Step 4: Exit all Microsoft Office for Mac programs. Then, Click the Word icon. On the left, click 'Preferences'.

Step 5: Click 'File Locations'.

Step 6: Select 'User templates'.

Step 7: Locate the file that is named Normal, and move the file to the desktop.

You can also find the file named as Normal through this way: 'Library' > 'Application Support' > 'Microsoft' > 'Office' > 'User Templates' > 'Normal'

Start Word, and check whether the problem still occurs. If the problem seems to be resolved, you can move the 'Normal' file to the trash.

3. Try to Open and Repair Word

Step 1: Start Word. On the File menu, click 'Open'.

Step 2: In the Open dialog box, select the file that you want to open. Click the down arrow on the Open button, click 'Open' > 'Repair'.

Thanks for everyones response, i have tried using WiDi, from windows 10 and it works fine, as mentioned it gets laggy when i open many windows, so want to try hard wired one, i know there are many apps which can be used for it, but all of them are without the cable. Infact technically i do understand the challenges here, but this is for my president and he is quite adamant about it and wants it through a cable and only on his surface, so i thought i will reach out to the community who can give me a good advise and suggestion which i can also put it across to my president. Use microsoft surface as second screen wire for mac.

Recover Deleted and Missing Word on Mac

Do not worry if the 'Word not opening' issue causes data loss disaster, you can recover unsaved Word document on Mac from its Temporary folder and AutoRecovery save. While for a deleted Word document on Mac, the easiest way of recovery is using a third-party Mac data recovery software.

Microsoft Word Not Working Properly On Mac

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac also recovers Word document that is missing, deleted or lost due to formatting, virus infection and other misoperation, and the best part of using the software to recover Word is being able to preview the file entirety.

Step 1. Select the location where your important Word documents were lost and click Scan button.

Step 2. Microsoft word autorecover mac pdf. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will start immediately a quick scan as well as a deep scan on your selected disk volume. Meanwhile, the scanning results will be presented in the left pane.

Step 3. By Path and Type, you can quickly filter the Word files you've lost earlier. Select the target files and click Recover Now button to get them back at once.