Deleting files in word

In this article, we plan to show you 3 quick methods to delete a document or its contents in Word as required.

It’s a good habit to clean up your computer by removing useless documents. While deleting files, here are 2 situations you will meet:

1. Sometimes, we can easily determine whether a document is unneeded with a glance at its name.
2. Other times, we have no choice but open document and check its contents before finally discard it.

The following 3 methods shall list solutions to the foresaid situations into which you would possible run.

Method 1: Delete a Closed Document

1. To start with, click “File” tab.
2. Next click “Open” to trigger the same name window.
3. Then go to the target folder and select a useless document.
4. Right click on the document and choose “Delete”.
5. Click “Yes” in confirmation box.

Method 2: Delete an Open Document

Normally, we can’t delete an open document. Yet, we find it’s too annoying that each time a document has to be closed before deletion. To address this issue, we suggest you take the macro way.

1. First and foremost, you click “Developer” tab.
2. Click “Visual Basic” next to open invoke VBA editor. Or just press “Alt+ F11” to do so.
3. Next click “Insert” and then choose “Module” to insert a new one under “Normal” project.
4. Then double click the module to open editing space on the right side.
5. Paste the following macro:

Sub DeleteOpenDoc()
  Dim objDoc As Document
  Dim strDocName As String
  Dim strButtonValue As String
 
  '  Initialization
  Set objDoc = ActiveDocument
  strDocName = ActiveDocument.FullName
 
  '  Check if the doc has beed saved.
  If objDoc.Path = "" Then
    MsgBox ("This document hasn't been saved.")
    Exit Sub
  End If
 
  '  Deletion confirmation
  strButtonValue = MsgBox("Are you sure to delete " & strDocName & "?", vbYesNo)
  If strButtonValue = vbYes Then
    objDoc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
    KillFile = strDocName
    Kill KillFile
  End If
End Sub

1. Click “Run”.
2. Now there will be a confirmation message on a popping up box. Click “Yes”.

Method 3: Delete Document Contents

There are also times you have saved a document with a name but want to discard all contents. Then the following macro is what you need:

Sub DeleteContents()
  Dim objDoc As Document
 
  Set objDoc = ActiveDocument
  objDoc.Content.Delete
End Sub

Just follow the same steps in method 2 to install and run the macro.

What to do when Word goes wrong

When Word collapses, don’t freak out. Check your important file first and see if there is any corruption. If any, you can try the built-in tool first to recover data from damaged docx. The result, however, is not optimistic in most cases. Therefore, you probably will need a more sophisticated one.

Author Introduction:

Vera Chen is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including xls recovery and pdf repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com

If you’re not a tech-savvy person, sometimes very small things in computers seem like a big headache. But never mind! You’re not alone. Hundreds of thousands of people out there face the problem of how to delete a document. A TechWelkin reader sent me an email yesterday and asked about a Microsoft Word tip on how she could delete a document!

If you’re looking for a delete button within MS Word window —then stop! There is no such button. You can not delete a document from inside the Word window. So, how do you go about it?

1. Close the document: An opened document can not be deleted. So, first of all, if you have it opened, close the document that you want to delete

2. Locate the document in computer: Open Windows Explorer. Select “Computer” or “My Computer” from the left side pane. Type your document’s name in search box and hit enter. System will find and show the document.

Delete a document from your computer.

3. Now delete it: Take right click on the document you want to delete and select Delete from the pop-up menu. You computer may ask for confirmation. Confirm and the document will be shifted to Recycle Bin (that means it is deleted)

4. Permanent deletion: You’ve deleted the file. However, a document can be easily retrieved from Recycle Bin. If you want to permanently delete it, select Recycle Bin from left pane of the Windows Explorer. Computer will show content of Recycle Bin in right pane. Select the document you want to permanently delete, take right click on it and select delete from the menu. Now the document is permanently gone!

Delete a Document from Mac

1. Close the document (in case you have opened it)
2. Type document’s name in Finder and search it.
3. Press Command key and click on the document and select Move to Trash. Or just drag the document’s icon onto the Trash icon. Or press Command key and then press Delete key

This is it! Now you know how to delete a Word document from your computer. By the way, we have published an article on how to automatically find and delete duplicate files from your compute. You might be interested in it because deleting duplicate files saves you storage space in computer.

Should you have any question on this topic, please feel free to ask in the comments section. We, at TechWelkin and our reader community will try to assist you. Thank you for using TechWelkin!

Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Deleting the Open Document File.

Periodically, I go through the files in my Word directories to determine if any of the old documents can be safely deleted. Many times, I need to open the file to examine it before I can make a determination as to whether it should be deleted.

Of course, Word will let you delete a file listed in the Open or Save dialog boxes, but it will not delete the active document—the one that is open at the current time. Rather than close the active document and then delete it by opening the Open or Save dialog boxes, I use the following macro to delete a file that is open.

Sub DeleteThisFile()
    Dim MyFile As String

    MyFile = ActiveDocument.Path & "" & ActiveDocument.Name
    If MsgBox(MyFile & " will be deleted permanently", _
      vbYesNo, "Delete this File?") = vbYes Then
        ActiveDocument.Close (wdDoNotSaveChanges)
        Kill MyFile
    End If
End Sub

The macro prompts you to make sure that you want to delete the file, and (if you do) it closes the document without saving and then deletes it. You should note that the file does not go to the Recycle Bin, but is immediately deleted.

Author Bio

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen…

Have you ever wanted to delete the document currently open in Word? I find I often want to do this when I’m trying to clean out a whole bunch of old documents: I open each one, check the contents and, if I no longer need it, delete it on the spot.

Word won’t normally let you do this: you must first close the document, then delete it. That’s a sensible safeguard, but sometimes it gets in the way of what you want to do.

Using a macro, you can get around this restriction and delete the active document. Note that because you cannot undelete any document you eliminate using this macro, it takes some preliminary precautions:

• First, the macro checks that there is, in fact, an open document to delete.
• If there is an open document, it checks that you really want to delete it. If not, the macro ends without doing anything else.
• If you give the go ahead to delete the document, the macro checks to see whether the open document has already been saved. If it has, the document is closed and then deleted. If it has not yet been saved, it is simply closed without saving any changes.

To create the macro:

1. Press Alt+F8 to open the Macros dialog.
2. Type DeleteActiveDocument in the Name box and click Create.
3. Copy and paste the following code between the Sub DeleteActiveDocument() and the End Sub statements (Note: if you want, you can download a full text copy of the code, complete with comments describing what it’s doing at each stage. It’s much easier to read than the listing below.):

Sub DeleteActiveDocument()
Dim strFileToDelete As String
Dim docOpen As Document
Dim  intDocCount As Integer

intDocCount = 0

For Each docOpen In  Documents
intDocCount = intDocCount + 1
Next docOpen

If  intDocCount > 0 Then

If MsgBox(“Are you sure you want to  delete the open document permanently? ” & _
“You won’t be able  to undo this action.”, vbYesNo) = vbYes Then

If  Len(ActiveDocument.Path) <> 0 Then

strFileToDelete  = ActiveDocument.FullName
ActiveDocument.Close  SaveChanges:=False
Kill strFileToDelete

Else

ActiveDocument.Close SaveChanges:=False

End If

End If

Else

MsgBox “There is no open document to  delete.”, vbOKOnly

End If

End Sub

1. Close the Visual Basic editor.

Add it to Word’s toolbar

To make the macro easily accessible, add it to the Quick Access Toolbar in Word 2007:

1. Click the arrow at the right end of the Quick Access Toolbar and select More Commands.
2. In the Choose Commands From box, select Macros from the drop-down list.
3. Click the newly created macro (it’s full name is Normal.NewMacros.DeleteActiveDocument) and then click the Add button.
4. Click the Modify button, select an appropriate icon for the macro (there’s a handy one with a cross in a red circle that fits well), type Delete This Doc in the Display Name box and click OK.

To add the macro to a Word 2003 toolbar:

1. Right-click any toolbar and click Customize.
2. On the Commands tab in the Categories list click Macros.
3. Locate Normal.NewMacros.DeleteActiveDocument in the Commands list and click-and-drag it onto a toolbar.
4. Right-click the new button you’ve created, in the Name box type Del (or something else short and descriptive), then click Text Only. If you’d prefer to use a graphic icon instead of a text-label, although none of the default icons is particularly apt you can create your own by selecting Default (instead of Text Only). Then click Edit Button Image, then Clear and then do a quick paint job (a red X works well).
5. Click Close in the Customize dialog box.

If you have any problems running the macro, take a look at the code in the Visual Basic editor and make sure you don’t have any broken lines. That’s the usual cause of problems.

WebJan 12, 2020 Open the MS Word software on your computer. Although the option to clear the entire recent list is built into Word, you’re not going to see it when you right-click on any file on the …
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