Excel Recent Files

Excel on a Mac (not the Windows version) has made available a Recent Files widget (similar widgets are available for other Office apps too).

To find your available widgets, right-click on a blank space on the Mac's desktop and select Edit Widgets

Then scroll down in the lefthand pane of the window that opens and click on Microsoft Excel

You'll see that various options for the Recent Files widget are available, showing different numbers of files ...

... and you can drag the version you want to the desktop and drop it there.

To be honest, this widget seems to be a bit of a waste of time, because it's just as easy to open Excel from the Dock, and it defaults to a list of recent files that is far longer than the widget shows. There's also a tab for Favorites, and you can right-click on a commonly used file in the recent file list and select Add to Favorites.

You can also right-click on a file that has been a Favorite but might not now be needed, and select 'Remove from Favorites'. And you can do that from the Recent list or the Favorites list.