Brad Williams

A: This is so typically shortsighted of Microsoft. It gives you a handy feature that absolutely requires customisation to be useful, and then it doesn't tell you how you can customise it!

To change what Microsoft calls the Place Bar (see FIGURE 1), you have to edit the Registry. As usual, you should back up the Registry first.

Note: Before you start editing the Registry, close all Office applications.

When you're ready, select StartòRun, type regedit, and press <Enter> to bring up the Registry Editor. Navigate in the left pane to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Open Find\Places\StandardPlaces.

The dialog box allows you to display only five place icons, so for every one you want to add, you must hide one of Microsoft's defaults. (Later I'll show you how to outwit this requirement.) Beneath StandardPlaces you'll find a key for every icon on the Place Bar. Right-click on one for an icon you don't want, and select NewòDWORD value. Name the value æshowÆ, and leave it with its default value of 0. Repeat this procedure for every icon you want to hide.

Once you've hidden a few folder icons, you're ready to create new ones. Right-click the UserDefinedPlaces key under Places, and then select NewòKey. Give the key any name you wish.

Right-click the new key and select NewòString Value. Name this value name. Press <Enter>, type in an appropriate name, and press <Enter> again.

Right-click the key again and select NewòString Value. Call this one æpathÆ; for the text string, enter the full path to the folder. For instance, if you want a shortcut to your Alternate Docs folder on your D: drive (as in Figure 1), your name value might be Alternate Docs and your path value D:\Alternate Docs.

There's a way to get around the dialog box's five-folder limit. Right-click the Places key and select NewòDWORD Value. Name the new value ItemSize and leave it with the default value of 0. The folder icons will be smaller, and you'll be able to fit more of them in the dialog box, as shown in the right-hand panel of Figure 1.

By Lincoln Spector