At the top right of that File|open dialog, there's an icon that will show
"Views" when you let your cursor linger over it.

I think you're in List view. If you change to Details, you get a single list
with file size/dates.

It may be less irritating to use this.

(I have no idea how to fix the situation you described.)

Silver wrote:

I have a quirky annoyance when I open my files list in either Word or Excel.

When I click on the "Open" icon (open file), my list of files comes up and I
have four columns of files. But instead of showing columns 1-3, it shows
columns 2-4. Then I have to move back to the left to see columns 1-3.

I want to "begin at the begin." How can I correct this?

--

Dave Peterson