Recent may refer to any of the following:

  1. In general, recent is a term that describes anything that happened not long ago or is new. For example, you can visit our what’s new page to find recent changes and new pages on Computer Hope.

  2. Alternatively known as recent documents, recent is a feature found in almost all programs that list files opened in the last few months or the last ten files opened in general.

How to open recent documents

The recent feature is always accessible through the file menu section and may be listed as “Recent,” “Recent Documents,” or “Recent Files.” Some programs may also list the recent files in the file menu.

The picture is an example of how Microsoft Word displays the Recent Documents feature and shows each of the recent documents that were opened. Clicking on any of the files under the Recent Documents opens that file.

As new files are opened, the older files are removed from the list, and the most recent is added to the top.

Software terms

If the recent file was moved, deleted, or is no longer accessible, it’s still shown as a recent file until it’s replaced. However, some programs detect the file no longer exists when opened from the recent section and remove it from the list after getting an error.

  • How to open, view, and edit the contents of a file on a computer.