COMPUTER TIPS & ARTICLES

Make It Easier to Open or Save In Favorite Folders

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:

1. In any Office program (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), display the File Open dialog box (Ctrl + O) or the Save As dialog box (F12).

2. Manually navigate (one last time!) to a folder to which you want easy access. Double-click the folder to see its contents.

3. 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.)

4. At the upper-right corner of the box, click the down arrow to the right of the Tools menu , then select Add to "My Places" from the pop-up menu.

5. Notice the gray Places bar, 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.

At any time, you can click this shortcut to go to that folder immediately.

6. You can even rename this shortcut, if you want: right-click it, then select Rename from the pop-up menu.