Back in the days, I wrote an article on how to clear the recent items list in Windows. If you added the Recent Items option to the Start Menu, you or anyone else could see all the files you recently opened!
If you’re a privacy freak who doesn’t want someone else to see what kind of documents you’ve been opening, clearing this list is essential! However, starting with Windows 7, there was a new feature introduced called a Jump List. You can read my previous post to understand how Jump Lists work.
With Jump Lists, that functionality basically moved from the Start Menu to the taskbar in Windows 8 and Windows 10! For example, if you open several Word documents and then right-click on the Word icon in the taskbar, you’ll see the following list:
It’s even worse for something like a web browser. When I right-clicked on the Chrome icon in my taskbar, I was surprised to see a list of my most visited sites and recently closed tabs!
Oct 04, 2019 Clear the Recent Documents List Clearing the recent documents list is simple. Whether you’re on Word’s opening splash screen or on the “Open” page when opening a document, right-click on any document in the recent list, and then choose the “Clear Unpinned Documents” option. Jul 23, 2018 In PowerPoint/Word/Excel 2016 for Mac, to clear recent files, we need to delete them one by one via File menuOpen RecentMoreright-click each file and choose Remove from Recent. @John, thanks for your sharing. Nov 26, 2013 App Store Preview for Mac provides a snapshot of the App Store right from your OS X Dashboard. An easy-to-use widget, it lets you sort and search for apps based on cost and popularity.
If no one else uses your computer, that’s fine, but otherwise it’s like a quick peek into your personal stuff! Obviously, Microsoft created this feature for convenience purposes, so you could easily open a web page you visit very often or file that you had recently worked on.
Each program has to individually support this feature in order to see the list. If a program doesn’t support Jump Lists, you won’t see anything when you right-click on the icon.
Clearing Individual Jump List Items
Now when it comes to removing items in the Jump List, there are a couple of ways to go about it. Firstly, let’s start with removing individual items from the list. An easy way to get rid of one item is to just right-click on the item and choose Remove from this list.
Obviously, that’s just for clearing a small number of items. If you remove all of the items, you have to configure a setting in Windows. The procedure for doing this is different depending on what version of Windows you are using. I’ll show you how to do it in Windows 7 and Windows 10.
Turn Off Jump Lists in Windows 7
To prevent Windows from storing and displaying a list of recent items in the taskbar, you first need to right-click on the taskbar and choose Properties.
Now click on the Start Menu tab and then uncheck the Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and the taskbar box.
Click OK and all the data stored for recently opened items will be deleted. Now when you right-click on any program in the taskbar, no personal data will show up. Note that this is a good way to wipe out all the stored data and start from scratch.
If you want, you can check the box again and it will begin to store recently opened items, but from a clean slate. Obviously, just leave it unchecked if you never want Windows to store your history.
Turn Off Jump Lists in Windows 10
In Windows 10, the procedure has changed. If you right-click on the taskbar and go to Properties, you’ll see there isn’t even a Start Menu tab anymore.
For Windows 10, you have to click on Start and then Settings first. Then click on Personalization.
Click on Start in the left-hand menu and then click on the Show recently opened items in Jump Lists on Start or the taskbar toggle button so that it says Off.
Manually Clear Jump Lists
All recent items in any Jump List are stored by Windows in a hidden location, which you can get to in Windows 7 or higher by browsing to the following folder location in Explorer:
%APPDATA%MicrosoftWindowsRecentAutomaticDestinations
Copy and paste that into Windows Explorer and press enter. Now you will see a list of files with very long and convoluted names. This is because all the Jump Lists are encoded. Each file represents a list of recent items for a particular programs’ Jump List.
It’s impossible to tell which entries go with which Jump Lists unless you open the file in a text editor and browse through it. However, since all of the files are just recent items in a Jump List, you can delete all the files and it will clear all recent items on all Jump Lists.
Those are all the different ways you can clear the list of recent items from a Jump List in Windows. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!
Preview is the default application in macOS for image files, like JPG and PNG, and PDF files. While it's primary purpose offers you a quick and easy way to see various documents, it has several pretty cool editing and markup features you may not even be know are there.
How to view photos and PDFs in Preview on Mac
Preview is the default app for viewing images and PDF files on your Mac. So, any time you double-click on, or otherwise launch, one of those files, it'll open in Preview.
If, for some reason, another app has taken over responsibility for a certain file type, and you want to give it back to Preview, you make the change right in the Finder.
- Right/Control - click on the file you want to open.
Hover on Open With…
Click Use as System Photo Library. Choose Photos Preferences. If you have more than one Photos library—and the one you're using isn't set as the System Photo Library—the Media Browser won't show its contents.Follow these steps to designate the current library as the System Photo Library:. The Media Browser shows only the contents of the Photos library designated as the. Why wont apps load on my mac. Click the General button at the top of the Preferences window.
Click Preview
How to crop documents in Preview on Mac
Preview can help you do some simple edit your photos and PDFs.
- Open the file you want to crop in Preview.
- Click the Show Markup Toolbar button. It's the button with the little toolbox icon.
Click, hold, and drag on the file to create a selection.
- Click, hold, and drag on any of the blue dots to resize the selection if needed.
Use the Command - K keyboard shortcut to crop the image.
How to show markup tools in Preview on Mac
Preview has several tools to choose from to edit your photos including Selection, Sketch, Text, Color Adjust, and more. You just need to show the Markup Toolbar to see them all.
- Open the file you want in Preview.
Click the Show Markup Toolbar button. It's the button with the little toolbox icon.
How to highlight PDFs in Preview on Mac
- Open the PDF you want to highlight in Preview.
- Click the Highlight button.
- Select the text you want to highlight.
Repeat as necessary.
How to annotate a document in Preview on Mac
Preview can allow you do various different types of annotations to documents, so whether you're going through a draft of a proposal or marking papers, you can make all the notes and marks you want.
- Open the file you want to annotate in Preview.
Click Tools in the top menu bar.
- Hover over Annotate
Click on the type of annotation you wish to perform.
From here you have a few options of what you can do, here's a quick breakdown.
Highlight Text
Allows you to highlight any selected text.
Underline Text
Allows you to underline any selected text.
Strike Through Text
Allows you to strike through any selected text.
Rectangle
Places a rectangular on the document, which you can move around and resize.
Oval
Places an oval on the document, which you can move around and resize.
Line
Places a line on the document, which you can move around and resize.
Arrow
Places an arrow on the document, which you can move around and resize.
Polygon
Places a Polygon on the document, which you can move around and resize.
Mac Clear Recents List
Star
Places a Star on the document, which you can move around and resize.
Text
Places a Text box on the document.
Speech Bubble
Places a Text box on the document, which you can type a message inside the bubble.
Mask
Places a layer mask on the document, so you can make a passage stand out.
Loupe
Creates a magnifying circle, perfect for calling out small icons.
Note
Creates a note, so you can leave comments.
How to add your signature to a document in Preview on Mac
If you ever type up letters or need to sign a digital contract you can save your signature in Preview and then add it to any document you want. You can add your signature using a the trackpad or even using the built-in camera.
- Open the file you want to sign in Preview.
- Sign your name on a piece of white paper
Click the Show Markup Toolbar button. It's the button with the little toolbox icon.
- Click the Sign button.
Click Camera
- Hold that **signed paper* up to the camera.
Click Done.
- Click your signature.
Reposition and resize the signature to your liking
How to share documents from Preview on Mac
- Open the file you want to share in Preview.
- Click the Share button.
Choose the option you want. Your choices include:
- Messages
- AirDrop
Notes
Questions?
Anything else you'd like to know about Preview? Let us know in the comments below.
macOS Catalina
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