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I have already read and implemented the answer in the following post. Excel: why doesn't "File-> Save As" remember the last directory that you saved a file in However I did not have much faith it was what I was looking for.

If you've ever used OpenOffice you will notice between sessions it remembers the last opened directory for save and open. How can I make excel (word, ect) do the same?

Example:

1) open excel (notice the default file location when you click 'file->open')

2) save the workbook to a different location other than the default, we will call it c:/newloc

3) 'file->open' and you notice the default location you are brought to is c:/newloc

4) close excel

5) open excel (notice the default file location when you click 'file->open' is no longer c:/newloc)

How can I achieve this?

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6 Answers 6

1

I'm afraid you can't, but with Excel 2010 (and maybe 2007, I don't know), you click the File tab, select Recent and then you can click on a map in the Recent Locations list.

3

Go to Excel options (in 2007 or later, go to the circle in the upper left corner, click Excel Options, go to Save and change the Default file location to whatever you need.

enter image description here

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  • 1
    That will not suffice, I do not want to change the default like this every time I save to a new directory.
    – rlemon
    Aug 20, 2011 at 23:11
  • @rlemon I understand. The only thing I could think of is writing yourself a little COM add-in in VB.NET or C# that changes the Application.DefaultFilePath automatically, each time you open up a new file. When I answered, I was envisioning you'd change directories a handful of times throughout your processing, so changing it by hand might have been viable. I'll think some more on it.
    – jonsca
    Aug 20, 2011 at 23:51
1

Until today, I have had this same question and frustration. I have always resorted to clicking "Browse" under "Other locations" - Now I have a recent list and a place to pin my regularly used save folders.

Here is what I found - Under the title "Save As" on the Excel save as screen, there is a clock icon and the word "Recent" - It doesn't appear to be a button, but it is. Click on that, and the list of file location choices will change to a list of recently used locations. If you hover over one you will see a push-pin icon appear. Clicking on that icon will "pin" that location to the top of your recent list under the heading "Pinned"

Hope this helps others.

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So the objective really is to be able to open the file open dialog in the last saved folder.

There is no direct way but you can achieve the same by just right clicking on one of the most recent file used that comes up and select Open File Location and that essentially achieves that. The file open dialog directly opens up in that folder.

enter image description here

Additional, notice the Pinned tab next to Recent. You can pin various documents of interest in various locations there and next time go to that tab and right click on that file and go directly to that folder location the same way.

This can also be helpful in a nagging situation, while opening a csv file. The data wizard doesn't come up if you open file from most recently used file, you have to open it via file open dialog. So you can right click on the path again and this time it shows all files in that path in the right pane. Now click browse in the left pane and it brings up file open dialog. Now select the same file and data wizard will come up.

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Go to Excel options (in 2007 or later, go to the circle in the upper left corner, click Excel Options, go to Save and earse the Default file location, leave it empty.

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I don't know how you are using excel, but if you are downloading a document and then opening it in excel then the "save as" location will reflect the same location as the folder you just downloaded to. If this is the case then just choose a different download directory for the file and then the excel "save as" directory will default to that when you open that window.

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  • This is a start but generally the download directory is not a good place for storing files. It is often a temp directory. Mar 17, 2021 at 19:15

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