Removing ALL Recents from Microsoft Word for Mac

The web instructions most prevalent are after quitting Word, are either move the following file to the Desktop or to the Trash.

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word.securebookmarks.plist

One would need to modify the above for Excel or Powerpoint — if it worked… — and it does not.

However, in practice, I tested this approach with my own Word 2024 for Mac on macOS Tahoe 26.6.2. Moving the securebookmarks.plist to the Desktop had no effect on the list of recent documents displayed in MS Word when it was launched afterward.

Word 2024 on WIndows 11 Pro will allow one to specifically set the number of displayed recent documents to 0, but that feature is not on the macOS Word version. (File -> Options > Advanced > Display panel).

What did work was to vacuum a specific Microsoft sqlite3 database that cleared the list of recently opened files in all three Microsoft applications at once. I am hesitant to illustrate this here because:

1. Microsoft may change the database name or location in future product updates
2. The sqlite3 syntax is complicated and user skills vary widely increasing the risk for error in the wrong hands
3. The database can potentially change with future Microsoft products breaking the current sqlite3 syntax
4. I could possibly script something but it would be subject to the preceding list items

maybe

How to Clear Microsoft Office Recent Files in One go (Mac)

How can I clear Recents (Word for Mac) - Microsoft Q&A

more

clear Recents from Microsoft Word for Mac - Google-

This morning, I sent Microsoft feedback asking them to provide a similar solution as used by Word on Windows to limit or suppress the list of recently opened files on the Word launch panel. Time will tell if they implement this.