How to Modify the Undo Limit in Microsoft Office Word, Excel, or PowerPoint?

Microsoft Office application allows you to undo, redo, or repeat many actions in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. When required, you can undo changes, even after saving, and then keep them as long as you are within the undo limits. By default, MS Office reserves the last 100 undoable actions, which means you can undo the previous 100 actions in Word, PowerPoint, or Excel.

However, suppose you are unhappy with 100 undoable actions. In that case, you can always change (increase or decrease) the number of undo levels in MS Office by adding an entry in the Windows Registry. But, if you use a slow PC, we don’t recommend you increase the number of undo levels beyond 100. Because, the more you increase the number of undo levels, the more random access memory (RAM) Office requires to store the undo history. This may affect the overall performance of your PC as well as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint application.

Furthermore, if the undo history is set to zero, no memory (RAM) is allocated for undoing actions. The higher the undo history value, the more your PC will allocate memory for the history. This directly affects the performance of your computer when you run such applications.

In this gearupwindows article, we will guide you on changing the undo limit in Microsoft Office applications Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

How to Modify the Undo Limit in Microsoft Office Word, Excel, or PowerPoint on Windows 11 or 10?

Altering the undo limit in Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are similar. So, I will demonstrate the procedure for changing the undoable limit in the Excel program; you can alter your Windows 11/10 Registry accordingly for Word or PowerPoint applications.

To change the undo limit in Microsoft Office Excel, use these steps:-

Step 1. Open Registry Editor.

Step 2. Then, navigate to the following path in the Registry Editor according to your Office version:-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\Options

Quick Note: You must replace “Excel” with the correct program in the above path. For example, replace “Excel” with “Word” or “PowerPoint” if you are going to alter the undoable history for the “Word” or “PowerPoint” program on your Windows 11 or 10 machine. Also, note that “16.0” may differ depending on the version of Office you’re using. For instance, you will find “12.0” for Microsoft Office Excel 2003.

Step 3. Right-click on the Options folder in the left sidebar and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Step 4. Name the newly created REG_DWORD as UndoHistory.

Step 5. Double-click on the UndoHistory REG_DWORD to modify it.

Step 6. Select “Base” as Decimal.

Step 7. Enter your desired number in the “Value data” field.

Step 8. Click OK.

Once you complete the above steps, restart the Excel application. Now, Excel will store an undo history for the number of actions that you specified in Step 7.

Similarly, you will need to repeat this process for each Office app, such as Word or PowerPoint, to modify the undo limit.

Conclusion

In conclusion, modifying the undo limit in Microsoft Office applications can be helpful when you want to increase or decrease the number of undoable actions in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. By default, Office reserves the last 100 undoable actions, which can be changed by modifying the Windows Registry. However, increasing the undo levels beyond 100 may affect the performance of your computer and Office applications. Therefore, it is essential to choose the appropriate number of undoable actions based on your PC’s capabilities. This guide demonstrates how to change the undo limit in Excel, and you can apply the same steps to Word or PowerPoint. Always be cautious while modifying the Registry, as any incorrect changes may harm your system.

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