When I right-click on the toolbar icon, a small window opens in that area. Pinned documents are at the top; recent documents are below that; at the bottom are various options.

Does anything happen when you right-click on the toolbar icon, or were you maybe trying to left-click on it? (I get confused about right-clicking and left-clicking sometimes in various Windows and/or Firefox situations, and when it happens it's like I'm no longer sure in which direction the Sun rises -- I get more and more flustered!)

This post was edited by missingtheobvious on Sun, Oct 19, 14 at 21:57

A little box is what shows up when I right click. To the left of each line is a small icon.

Pinned
My Word Template
My Template
______________________

Microsoft Word 2010
Pin this program to taskbar
Close all windows

Missing, that is the way mine used to show. I don't know why the recent documents no longer shows. I used it a lot and would like to have it back.

Any advice as to how to add the "recent" documents back?

Does this help?

Change the number of files that appear in the list of recently used files

1. Click the File tab.
2. Under Help, click Options.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Under Display, in the Show this number of Recent Documents list, click the number of files that you want to display.

That comes from this Microsoft Office help page: http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/word-help/customize-the-list-of-recently-used-files-HA010354236.aspx

If it's already set to a number greater than zero, yet none are showing, I'm afraid you'll need to wait for someone more knowledgeable.

What OS are you using ? Mac ? Windows ? which version ?

Also, I don't understand your terminology . . .

What do you mean by "toolbar" ?

In the Windows desktop (Win7 and before) there is Quicklaunch, Taskbar, and System Tray - from left to right.
Then there is the Start button and menu.
But no Toolbar as such, from which you can launch Word.

If you could fill in a few details I might be able to help.

This post was edited by kbarb on Fri, Oct 24, 14 at 22:09

Rather than "toolbar," I think we're probably talking about the taskbar (to the right of the Start button on my W7).

For most Windows (all ?),

Right-click on Start, click Properties, then . . .

XP - Click Customize, then Advanced tab - change settings for Recent

Win7 - Click "Start Menu" tab and change settings for Recent . . .
Also it's in "Customize" there on that tab.

There is also a registry setting but I doubt you'd want to mess with that.

Yes, I am talking about the task bar. Using Windows 7 Home Premium. I have no problem getting the recent documents to show when I open a Word document. It is only in the shortcut icon in the task bar that the recent documents no longer show.

Thank you all for trying to help me.

This post was edited by walnutcreek on Sat, Oct 25, 14 at 16:51

Ok, so did you try my suggestion above then, starting with right clicking on the Start Menu ?

Yes I did. However, it did not work to get "recent" in the taskbar icon. I am to the point of giving up.

Put the short cut directly on the desktop, un- pin it from the taskbar. See if that has any change for you. You could also try re- creating the short cut.

Apparently some corruption in the shortcuts to docs recently opened can cause this.
So you have to go in and delete all the recent docs shortcuts and start over, meaning new shortcuts to recently opened docs will be created after you open them again in Word, etc.

The location for the shortcuts to delete is here :

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

A post with an answer explaining this is here :

List of Recent Documents not showing up in Task Bar or Start Menu.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/officeversion_other-word/list-of-recent-documents-not-showing-up-in-task/8f63be2f-67b0-463e-995e-8274adefdcbe

I would just delete everything in there - they're just shortcuts anyway.

Also there is a registry setting that turns the entire "Recent Docs" feature on & off. It's described at the end of an article here :

http://www.windowstipspage.com/recent-documents-missing-in-windows-7/

Somehow I'm thinking the first fix has more to do with your problem though, but let us know if you need help with the Registry setting.
There is a semi automated way to make the registry reset change.

Kent

This post was edited by kbarb on Mon, Oct 27, 14 at 12:21

I cannot believe what I did that fixed the issue. I had pinned a "My Template" on the Word icon. I unpinned the "My Template" and up popped the "Recent" documents. Can you believe it? I can't! I love Word, but it certainly has it's idiosyncrasies.

Well, the issue was sadly not fixed. The "recent" is showing, but the recent documents are not listing. I give up.

That's too bad.
But you give such scant details it's a little hard to help.
Did you open a doc, and now it still doesn't show up ?
Did you try any of our latest suggestions ?

Thanks, Kbarb. I thought I was giving details, but I guess not. I have created documents, opened documents, etc., and they still do not show up in the Word icon on the taskbar. I tried all of the suggestions brought up above and none worked.

When I have a document open and go to the file tab, I can then see the recent documents listed, but not in the shortcut icon on the taskbar. Any more ideas and questions, let me know. I would truly like to be able to see my recent documents in the taskbar icon again.

>>"When I have a document open and go to the file tab, I can then see the recent documents listed, but not in the shortcut icon on the taskbar."

So you mean you can see recent docs - from within Word - but not on the taskbar shortcut, right ?

And, you tried :

1) Deleting everything in :

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

2) and you checked the registry setting.

If that's all true I'm not sure I can come up with any more solutions - something really weird must be going on, possibly related to the pinning thing you did.

I have used all of the suggestions above and nothing has worked to get the recent documents back into the taskbar Word icon. Just on the off chance that they might work today, I repeated all of them. Nothing changed. That is why I am giving up, finally.

Thanks to you all for your suggestions.