Deleting 'Recent Places'

In Pages, under Finder Menu bar/File/Open, a document-selection window opens. At the top of the window is a location-selection drop-menu. In that menu there's a choice named Recent Places. How do I delete the Recent Places list?

Also, is there a way to turn off Recent Folders, under Finder Menu bar/Go/Recent Folders?

Thank you for your advice.

Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 27, 2008 5:25 PM

Reply
14 replies

Dec 28, 2008 7:23 AM in response to appler505

In Pages, under Finder Menu bar/File/Open, a document-selection window opens. At the top of the window is a location-selection drop-menu. In that menu there's a choice named Recent Places. How do I delete the Recent Places list?

Also, is there a way to turn off Recent Folders, under Finder Menu bar/Go/Recent Folders?



Both of them rely on the same database.

We may clear them from the Finder's menu item:
menuBar > Go > Recent Folders > Clear Menu

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE dimanche 28 décembre 2008 16:23:06)

Dec 29, 2008 9:27 AM in response to appler505

You are right and I wasn't completely wrong.

The list of recent places is stored in a global file but not in the one cleaned by the process which I described.

Here is a way to clean the 'Recent Places" list.

Download the free plist editor named "Pref Setter"
from:
http://www.nightproductions.net/prefsetter.html


run this short script:

--\[SCRIPT]
set p2p to path to preferences folder from user domain as text

tell application "Pref Setter" to open file (p2p & ".GlobalPreferences.plist")
--[/SCRIPT]

It will open the hidden plist storing the list.

You will get something like:

User uploaded file

Select the list's item and press delete.
You will get:

User uploaded file

click "Delete"
close the window
click Save

That's all folks.

Of course, for those which already installed the Developer tools, no need to use 'Pref Setter'.

Replace "Pref Setter" by "Property List Editor" in the script and apply the same protocol.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 29 décembre 2008 18:25:40)

Dec 29, 2008 9:52 PM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Hello. If it interests, I've found three invisible files with GlobalPreferences in their title. The first is in the ByHost folder in the User Preferences folder. The second one is in the regular Library Preferences. The third is in the Users Preferences folder. Any ideas on these three GlobalPreferences files, and the safety (and benefits, if any) of deleting them, would be welcome.

Dec 30, 2008 11:38 AM in response to appler505

Hey KOENIG Yvan, thanks for your reply. So, should I delete the .plist in the ByHost folder, or the one in the User Preferences folder? Also, what else would I lose by deleting the one you mention - also, any other things I would need to reset?

I could not get the software you mentioned to work as you did - probably because all this is new to me; but I found the three .plists using a simple program called EasyFind.

Dec 30, 2008 12:12 PM in response to appler505

What is the problem with the Pref Setter program?
The download brings "Pref Setter.zip" on my Desktop.
Double click it to expand it as "Pref Setter"
Then run the script.

--\[SCRIPT]
set p2p to path to preferences folder from user domain as text

tell application "Pref Setter" to open file (p2p & ".GlobalPreferences.plist")
--[/SCRIPT]

Navigate to reach the "NSNavRecentPlaces" Key
Click the small triangle on the left of the key to display the list of strings
then click Item 1
press the shift key and click the lower Item (for me it was Item 5) to select the entire list.
Then press the Delete key (or select the menu item "Edit > Delete")

I will be back tomorrow.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mardi 30 décembre 2008 21:11:24)

Feb 19, 2009 2:39 AM in response to GAA2

Thanks for the feedback.

Nobody knows everything and sometime we know something one day and forget it some days after. 😉

Last week I wrote that as far as I knew there is no way to use SUMIF with a condition of the kind <=cellRef.

Look what I wrote in

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7185825 (11 mai 2008)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6111945 (15 dec 2007)

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 19 février 2009 11:39:08)

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Deleting 'Recent Places'

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