Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Viewing Files of a Certain Type.
When you want to open a document, you normally use the Open dialog box. (The easiest way to display it is to just press Ctrl+O.) This is a standard dialog box in Word used to list the files that you can open in the program. At the bottom of the dialog box you can use a drop-down list to limit what Word displays in the file list.
What if you want to display files that have a non-standard filename extension, however? For instance, what if you want to display only the files that you saved using a filename extension of .LET? If you want to do this, Word makes it easy: simply enter *.let in the File Name box and press Enter. Word dutifully displays all the files ending in .LET.
What if you want to display only the files that begin with W and end in .DOCX? All you need to do is enter w*.docx in the File Name box and again press Enter.
For those who have been around computers for a while, you may recognize a pattern here. The pattern is simple—you can use the old DOS wildcards (asterisk and question mark) to specify a pattern for the files you want Word to list.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10311) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Viewing Files of a Certain Type.
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2015-05-10 20:11:40
Fred Farkash
I left windows when vista came on the scene. I went to mac os x.
I took a collage course on office 2013 on windows 8.1 platform. I hate the ribbon but really like all the improvements to each of the products. As I said to start with I have been using OS X since vista broke the camels back. As you probably know Microsoft has finally come out with office 2013 for Mac OS X called Office 2016. My question is, will you be publishing WordTips for Word 2016 as well? The question also goes for Exceltips 2013 and Exceltips 2016.
Thank you for your attention
Fred
2015-05-09 19:53:53
Neil Fitzjames
Reza, I too have Word 2013 .
I have set my "File Open " to * All Files.
I go File Open , Computer, Browse and that is where I have the *All Files setting.
Most of the time I know the folder where the file is located.
If you are uncertain then use Windows Explorer with *,let or whatever extension you want to find.
Neil
2015-05-09 07:15:01
Reza
Hi,
I use office 2013 but in dialog box I have not drop-down list.
I wish word tips could come with graphics.
Thank you for all great tips, they are really helpful.
Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: 
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