In modern versions of Microsoft Excel, pressing the keyboard shortcut to Save (Ctrl+S) or Open (Ctrl+O) no longer brings up the traditional, compact Windows file explorer dialogue box. Instead, it violently yanks you out of your spreadsheet and drops you into a massive, full-screen menu known as the “Backstage View.” While Microsoft designed this screen to help users easily access OneDrive and recent cloud documents, it is incredibly jarring and completely breaks the workflow of power users who simply want to browse their local C: drive to save a file. You can force Excel to skip this screen and go straight to the classic save prompt.
How to Disable the Backstage View for Saving and Opening
You can bypass this full-screen menu by tweaking Excel’s save preferences.
- Open Microsoft Excel.
- Click on the File tab in the top-left corner (which opens the Backstage View).
- Look at the very bottom of the left-hand blue sidebar and click on Options.
- The “Excel Options” dialogue box will appear. In the left-hand menu pane, click on Save.
- Look under the very first section titled “Save workbooks.”
- Locate the checkbox labelled Don’t show the Backstage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts.
- Click this checkbox to check it.
- Click the OK button at the bottom right of the window.
From now on, whenever you press Ctrl+S to save a new file, or Ctrl+O to open one, Excel will immediately launch the standard, compact Windows file explorer window right on top of your spreadsheet, allowing you to browse your local folders instantly without losing sight of your data.