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: Viewing Files of a Certain Type.

Viewing Files of a Certain Type

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 24, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


When you want to open a document, you normally display the Open dialog box by choosing Open from the File menu, or by clicking on the Open tool on the Standard toolbar. This is a standard dialog box in Word, used to list the files that you can open in the program. At the bottom of the dialog box you can use the Files of Type drop-down list to limit what Word displays in the file list.

What if you want to display files that have a non-standard filename extension, however? For instance, what if you want to display only the files that you saved using a filename extension of .LET? If you want to do this, Word makes it easy: simply enter *.let in the File Name box and press Enter. Word dutifully displays all the files ending in .LET.

What if you want to display only the files that begin with W and end in .DOC? All you need to do is enter w*.doc in the File Name box and again press Enter.

For those who have been around computers for a while, you may recognize a pattern here. The pattern is simple—you can use the old DOS wildcards (asterisk and question mark) to specify a pattern for the files you want Word to list.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1718) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Viewing Files of a Certain Type.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Quickly Changing Document Windows

When working with multiple documents at the same time, you often have a need to move from one document to another. Here's ...

Discover More

Extracting E-mail Addresses from Hyperlinks

If you have a list of hyperlinked e-mail addresses in a worksheet, you may want to extract the addresses from those ...

Discover More

Understanding Operators

At the heart of working with Excel is the process of creating formulas that calculate results based on information within ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Determining Word Versions of Documents

If you know where to look, you can figure out which version of Word was last used to work on a document. It takes some ...

Discover More

Understanding Background Saving

Word has the capability to save your work, in the background, while you continue to edit your documents. This tip ...

Discover More

Embedding TrueType Fonts

If you need to make sure that the fonts in your document can be used by another person or on a different system, you'll ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is nine minus 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.