Save Time Opening and Saving Files by Customizing Word 2003's My Places Bar

When you open the Open or Save dialog boxes in Word XP and 2003, you will see the My Places bar along the left side of the dialog box. The buttons on the bar will give you quick access to locations on your hard drive and on your network, if you have one.

However, you're somewhat limited in the locations that are presented here, and chances are you will need to do some navigating to get to the exact location you want.

If you frequently save files in a nested folder within your My Documents folder or another folder on your hard drive, you can cut down the navigation you need to do when you save or open a document by adding the folder to the My Places bar:

1. In the Open or Save dialog box, navigate until you find the folder

2. When you find the folder you would like to add, highlight it

3. Click Tools in the upper right corner of the dialog box

4. From the popup menu, select Add to “My Places”

Next time you open or save a file, clicking the folder button on the My Places bar will open it, allowing you to view the files. A word of caution: If you move, rename, or delete a folder you add to the My Places bar, you will no longer be able to access it from the My Places bar.

My Places no longer exists in Word 2007. However, Word 2007 does feature Favorite Links. Learn how to customize Word 2007's Favorite Links feature.

To delete a file from the My Places bar, follow these steps:

1. In the Open or Save dialog box, right click the button for the folder you wish to delete

2. On the popup menu, click Remove

The folder will be removed from the My Places bar, but will remain on your hard drive.