{"id":6397,"date":"2014-08-20T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T07:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=6397"},"modified":"2014-08-16T09:11:56","modified_gmt":"2014-08-16T16:11:56","slug":"do-you-miss-word-2013s-open-dialog-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=6397","title":{"rendered":"Do You Miss Word 2013’s Open Dialog Box?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Word 2013 unceremoniously dispensed with the traditional Open dialog box. It was replaced with something called Back Stage<\/em>. You can get the Open dialog box back, but only when you know the secret.
\n
\nFor decades, Word users expected that the Ctrl+O keyboard shortcut, as well as the Open icon button, summons the traditional Open dialog box, shown in Figure 1.<\/p>\n

\"Figure

Figure 1. The expected result of pressing Ctrl+O in Microsoft Word. (Sorry about the fuzziness.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Instead, you see something called Back Stage, shown in Figure 2.<\/p>\n

\"Figure

Figure 2. The Back Stage version of Open. (Fuzziness here is on-purpose.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Now Back Stage is okay. It lists recent documents, and it provides handy access to cloud storage — albeit only Microsoft’s cloud storage for some inexplicable reason.<\/p>\n

And what the heck, Microsoft? Back Stage? You mean behind the scenes? You mean where the stage people hang out and actors smoke and gossip? Sheesh . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you yearn to avoid the Back Stage and just desire to use to the Open dialog box, press Ctrl+F12. Ta-da! There it is, just like in Figure 1.<\/p>\n

Why Ctrl+F12?<\/p>\n

That keyboard shortcut is completely forgettable, but wholly historical. Back when Microsoft Word first appeared (for DOS) it used the F-keys entirely. The F12 suite of keyboard shortcuts have been retained in the program ever since. Ctrl+F12 was the original Open command in Microsoft Word decades ago.<\/p>\n

You can also use the Alt+Ctrl+F2 keyboard shortcut to conjure the Open dialog box.<\/p>\n

Yes, that’s also traditional and forgettable.<\/p>\n

You don’t have to put up with the weirdo keyboard shortcuts. You can, in fact, re-assign Ctrl+O to the FileOpen<\/code> command. Such a change is made deep within the bowels of Word. Follow these steps, which are lifted from a previous Wamblog post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. From the File tab, choose the Options command.<\/li>\n
  2. Click the Customize Ribbon item on the left side of the window.<\/li>\n
  3. Click the Customize button by Keyboard Shortcuts.<\/li>\n
  4. From the Categories list, choose File Tab.<\/li>\n
  5. In the Commands list, locate FileOpen.<\/li>\n
  6. Click the mouse in the Press New Shortcut Key box.<\/li>\n
  7. Press Ctrl+O.<\/li>\n
  8. Click the Assign button.<\/li>\n
  9. Back out of all the dialog boxes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    After following these steps, the Ctrl+O keyboard shortcut summons the preferred Open dialog box (Figure 1). And the people of the town lived in peace and harmony until Word’s next release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Your favorite dialog box wasn’t killed, it’s just hiding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-6397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main","tag-word"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6397"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6437,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397\/revisions\/6437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}