The places bar is the gray bar along the left edge of the file-open and file-save dialog boxes in Microsoft Office 2000/XP.
This bar has five buttons, no more and no less, each of which points to a different folder on your system.
By default, these places are
History ,
Documents ,
Desktop ,
Favorites , And
Web Folders . (How many of us
Really Use web folders ...)
It is actually possible to customize these places, although it's not supported ented, and it's far from easy.
Here's how to do it.
Note: Details on customizing the places bar used in most non-office file dialogs in Windows ME and Windows 2000 can be found in Windows ME annoyances, the book.
Note: make sure all Microsoft Office applications are closed before you proceed.
Don't open any office applications until you're done, either-they'll screw up all your settings.
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- Run the Registry Editor (Regedit. EXE ).
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- Expand the branchesHKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Office \ 9.0 \ common \ open find \ places(Replace9.0With10.0For Office XP ).
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- You shoshould see two subkeys here:StandardplacesAndUserdefinedplaces.
- First, you'll have to clear out the existing items; otherwise
Your custom items won't be shown. one-by-one, highlight each key underStandardplaces(E.g. desktop, recent), and selectNewAnd thenDWORD ValueFromEditMenu. Name the new valueShow, And leave the value0Unchanged.
-
- Don't worry if you want to keep one or more of the defaults;
It's easier in the long run to clear them all and then recreate
Five you want to keep.
Also, make sure the values you add are DWORD values; otherwise, this
Won't work.
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- Next, highlightUserdefinedplacesKey, and add five new keys. Name themPlace1,Place2,Place3,Place4, AndPlace5.
- in each of these new keys, you'll want to create the following values:
- string value called name : This contains the caption that will appear under this place (example: desktop ).
- string value called path : This contains the full folder path for the place (example: C: \ windows \ Desktop ).
- DWORD Value called index : This allows you to choose how your places are sorted. enter 0 for the first place, 1 for the second, 2 for the third, and so on. the key names typed in the previous step (place1, place2, etc .) do not determine the sort order.
- The following optional values are also supported here:
- DWORD Value calledView: This allows you to choose between List View (1), Details View (2), summary view (3), or preview view (4 ).
- DWORD Value calledArrangeby: This allows you to choose the sort order: Name (1), type (2), size (3), or date (4 ).
- DWORD Value calledSortascending: This allows you to choose whether the contents are sortedA-Z (1) or Z-A (0 ).
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- After you 've entered all the new places, open any office application to try it out.
This may require some trial-and-error to get it right.
One of the things that makes this difficult, however, is that office
Tends to indiscriminately add new keys and values, which can clutter up
What you're working on.
If you 've done it right, however, the seemingly random keys and values
That appear will have no effect on what actually appears in
Dialogs.
- To allow more than five places on the places bar, expand the Registry branchesHKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Office \ 9.0 \ common \ open find \ places(Replace9.0With10.0For Office XP ).
- SelectNewAnd thenDWORD ValueFromEditMenu.
- Name the new valueItemsize, And leave the value0Unchanged.
- If you just want to resort the items shown without adding anything new, see Microsoft's technical note.
Note that some mizmization in Office XP can be done from
The Program (and without editing the Registry), but it's rather
Limited.
Note that this does not apply to Office 2000.
Here's how you do it:
- open any Office XP application, and then select open from the File menu.
- right-click on any existing place icon, and select move up or move down.
- to add a new place to the places bar, navigate to the parent folder of the folder you wish to add (not the folder itself ), highlight it in the window, click tools (in the upper right) and select Add to "my places" .
- you can delete any custom places my right-clicking their icons on the bar and selecting remove , but you won't be able to remove the standard places without editing the Registry as described above.
