Is there a way to have the Open File window open in detail view and in alphabetical order. I am tired of having to change from list view to detail every time in almost all software programs. Thank you

How about this ?

default to DETAILS view instead of LIST in FILE > OPEN app..

The alphabetitical sort--I do not know...

Thanks for your prompt reply. I cannot find anywhere any kind of instructions to the computer to default to any kind of view. Can you please explain how to do that i.e. Excel? Thank you

Close all Explorer windows.
Open My Computer and set the View to Details. ( My computer is the whole system's file)
Click Tools-Folder Options-View and click "Apply to all folders"
Click OK > OK

Thank you. Apparently it works only on Microsoft programs. For example it does not work on OpenOffice or HTML-Kit and a couple of others I tried it on after your advise. I thought that perhaps it had something to do with the registry? Thank you very much for your help, at least it works on MS programs

Well there may be a way to do it on those open-source apps-- but you could be in a nursing-home before you find it. LOL.

You could try some of "their" forums-- they have some extremely smart + experienced folks over there... it really is a whole 'nother world... they hate Windows with a passion-- but will usually help you.
I admire them in a way-- I always did thumb my nose at "the establishment"-- in computing... that's paid software.Trouble is -it takes so long to get really good at open source stuff...and then it won't work with 99% of everybody else.

OpenOffice.org Forum :: Setup and Troubleshooting