For some strange reason many years ago my Word 97 opens to Column 3 in the Open box that pops up. As you would expect all of my folders are in Column 1 and 2. How do I get it to remember to open in the C1 and C2 location?

Are you referring to how files and folders are sorted in the Open dialog box? In that case, you should be able to change the sort order by clicking the column heading.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

When I click on the folder icon, directly under "File", at the top left of Word, I get a pop up box which I assume is the Open dialog box you are speaking of. In the main window of this box are all of the folders and documents arranged in columnar format with the folders on the far left. Unfortunately the dialog box opens with Column 3 at the far left instead of Column 1. I do not see any column heading to click on. All that is available is the slider bar which I can move over to the left to get me to Column 1 & 2. This is the extra step I want to eliminate by having the Open dialog box opening with Column 1 & 2 appearing on the left instead of Column 3. There must be a setting somewhere that will fix this. What is it?

See this screenshot:


If you click on the circled button you should get the ability to click on a column title.

I see now what might help clarify the problem. In any of those open format options at the top right of the files window, List, Details, Properties, Preview, it always opens to the first Word document, not to the first folder. So I need to tell it to open to the first folder. I could not find that choice in the "Options" section under "Tools". Could it be someplace else?

Change the path for the documents folder in Tools | Options | File Locations.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I tried changing as you said. It didn't work. Here is my path:

C:\Users\Jack\Documents\Word Files

I added another extension:

C:\Users\Jack\Documents\Word Files\BenQ 1080ST

BenQ 1080ST is the first folder of 21 folders. It opened to the first Word document inside of the BenQ 1080ST folder. Clearly it wants to open to the first document. I can erase all of the un-foldered Word documents but that seems like a cheap way to solve the problem.

If you want to see the last document inside the folder, you can change the sort order, as Charles suggested earlier.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I am having a really bad day. It's obvious that I am unable to explain the problem. Someplace in Word, perhaps in the code itself, there is a parameter that has been set that says when the top level folder is opened, in my case it is "Word Files", it will open to the first Word document in "Word Files". I want it to open to the first folder in "Word Files". This will enable the first two columns of folders to appear in the window using the "List" option at the top right. As it is now when Word opens to the first Word document under "Word Files" I have to use the slider at the bottom of the window in order to get Columns 1 & 2 to appear in the window. That is an extra, and in my opinion, an unnecessary step. Excel does not have this problem. It always opens to the first folder.