Recent versions of Office have started to sort folders into the "most recently used" order when I go to open a file. This is probably great for the occasional user, but infuriating for a user like me, who at any one time might be working on, or referring to, up to 50 files all stored in different places on my hard drive. Can I disable this and have the folders shown alphabetically in the file/open dialogue?

In the file open dialog there should be an icon at the top right for Views with a dropdown list. You can choose Details in the list and sort by any of the fields.

Grok Lobster's reply is not the point. On my Windows 2000 computer, the folder order in the <open file> or <save file> windows was alphabetical, and since on my network drive I have close to 500 folders, that was necessary. Then "they" installed Office 2003, and now almost all programs, whether Microsoft or not, list the folders in what looks to be random order (I don't think it's in accordance with recent usage, but even if it were, it is useless). However, some of the Office suite of programs (in particular Word, Excel and PowerPoint) still display the folders in alphabetical order. Yes, as Grok Lobster says, by showing details and clicking at the top of the column, I can change the order to alphabetical, but the change is temporary and I have to do it dozens of times a day. I can change things so that all programs display the folders in alphabetical order only by changing Windows Explorer so that files (not folders!) are displayed in alphabetical rather than chronological order; in other words, I cannot have sensible orders for files in Explorer AND for folders in <open file>. This is getting to me; clearly Microsoft deliberately made Office change the way the operating system worked for non-Office programs. It is not acceptable. Has anyone any suggestions? I suspect some change in the registry would correct the bug, but I am not competent to play with that.

This was a problem for me, too. This is how I fixed it in WORD 97: In the File Open dialog box, there is an icon at the far right called Commands and Settings. Click on that icon, then click on Sorting, then choose sort by Name and choose Ascending, then click OK. On my computer, the change was permanent.