Clever Clogs tip # 684
1 January 2022


Don't show the Start screen when opening Word, Excel or PowerPoint *

Hello and welcome to the first tip of 2022. Happy new year!

Speaking of new ... what do you make of the extra screen you get when you open Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project or Visio? It shows a list of templates and documents you recently worked on, but for years I'd simply press ENTER to open a new blank document.

So if - like me - you'd rather go straight to a blank document, you might want to turn off the start screen.

Here's how:

  1. On the File tab, click Options. (Or press ALT, F, T.)
  2. Under Start up options, uncheck Show the Start screen when this application starts.
  3. Press ENTER or click OK.

This option can be switched off separately in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project or Visio, so perhaps you want to keep the Start screen for some of the Apps.

Related tips

Six productive things to do with CTRL + N(ew): tip_635.php

Last month's CleverClogsTipTime on LinkedIn; just in case you missed it.

  1. Warning: unwanted side-effects of tip 682 about transparent circles in PowerPoint
  2. Delete trick in Outlook, Word and PowerPoint (and Gmail and LinkedIn)
  3. 'Tis the season for ugly Christmas sweaters
  4. Add public holidays to your Outlook calendar
  5. Four reasons to use named ranges in Excel

K.

PS It's my 21st birthday today. No prizes for guessing I'm not talking about myself ... it's 21 years ago that I decided to go it alone. The last two years continued to be strange, so I'm thankful to everyone who helped me get here. When people think you offer something useful, it's really gratifying!


* Unless stated otherwise this tip is written for Microsoft 365 desktop apps and Windows 10 users, but might also be useful in Office 2010, 2013 and 2016.