tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8640496.post-1136139372971467392006-01-01T13:09:00.000-05:002006-01-20T13:32:09.653-05:00<a href="http://www.nerdybooks.com/blogs/podcasts/2006/bobsblog010106.mp3" rel="enclosure"><img src="http://www.nerdybooks.com/blogs/podcasts/podcast_icon.jpg" alt="Podcast" border="0" height="14" width="60" /></a><br />If you have a lot of data files on your computer (Word docs, Excel workbooks and so on), you've long outgrown storing them in My Documents. Maybe you've created folders to store files for specific projects or clients. If you work with other people in an office, even a small one, this isn't even a question. You routinely access files on other computers. Which means you know how frustrating it can be to keep going back-and-forth to all these drives and folders.<br /><br />Fortunately, all the Microsoft Office 2003 programs make it easier for you to get to these folders by putting links to them in dialog boxes like File Open and Save. Here's how you do it:<br /><br /><ol> <li>In any Office program (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), display the File Open dialog box (<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ctrl </span>+ <span style="font-weight: bold;">O</span>) or the Save As dialog box (<span style="font-weight: bold;">F12</span>).</li> <li>Manually navigate (one last time!) to a folder to which you want easy access. Double-click the folder to see its contents.</li> <li>The File Open or Save As dialog box you're using is probably too small to display any more icons, so stretch it out: place the mouse pointer in the box's lower-right corner, then click and drag downwards and to the right. (If there isn't enough room, first put the mouse pointer on the box's blue title bar, where it says Open, Save As or whatever, then drag the entire box up and to the left.)</li> <li>At the upper-right corner of the box, click the <span style="font-weight: bold;">down arrow</span> to the right of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tools menu</span> <img src="http://www.nerdybooks.com/blogs/images/tools_menu.gif" border="0" height="18" width="43" />, then select <span style="font-weight: bold;">Add to "My Places"</span> from the pop-up menu.</li> <li>Notice the gray <span style="font-weight: bold;">Places bar</span>, on the left side of the dialog box. There is now a shortcut to your folder at the bottom, below the shortcuts to the Desktop and other common folders.<br /><img src="http://www.nerdybooks.com/blogs/images/places_bar.gif" border="0" height="195" width="101" /><br />At any time, you can click this shortcut to go to that folder immediately.</li> <li>You can even rename this shortcut, if you want: right-click it, then select <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rename </span>from the pop-up menu. And if you ever want to remove it...nah, I'll let you figure this one out.</li> <li>But wait! There's more! This shortcut will now be available on the Places bars in all the other Office programs.</li> </ol><br />Here's another hint: if you want to put a lot of shortcuts on the Places bar, you'll quickly run out of room. So make the icons smaller: just right-click an empty spot on the Places bar, then select <span style="font-weight: bold;">Small Icons</span> from the pop-up menu. The text labels will remain the same size.Bob Flisser, co-author, www.nerdybooks.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00074402169552721332noreply@blogger.com