The Fast Track to Your Favorite Files and Folders

Use Windows' Places Bar, My Recent Documents, or the 'File-name' dropdown menu to speed up your access to the file or folder you want.

There you are, rummaging in an 'Open' or 'Save As' dialog box, navigating furiously through a maze of files and folders in search of the one you need. Isn't there a better way? Glad you asked. These tips will get you where you're going faster.

Places Bar: Array the two or three folders that you access most often on the Places Bar on the left side of the dialog box. Lincoln Spector describes how at "Keep Your Secrets: A Safe, Easy Way to Encrypt Files." (Windows' Places Bar is separate from the Places Bar in Office apps, so changes to one won't affect the other.)

Another option: Put shortcuts to the folders and documents you frequently use in a separate folder, and then add a shortcut to this folder o' shortcuts on the Places Bar. You'll have to click at least once more to select the one you want, but it's still faster than digging through layers of folders.
Customize your favorite links in Vista dialog boxes instantly with a simple drag and drop.

In Vista, the Places Bar is called Favorite Links and is located both in Explorer and in most file dialog boxes (applications not designed for Vista being a notable exception). To customize this list, locate the folder you want in the Folders pane (below Favorite Links) on the left, or select a folder or file in the main file window in the center of the dialog box; then drag the item into Favorite Links until a line appears between two existing items (see ). Release the mouse button to create the new shortcut. For a bigger view, click the down arrow next to Folders to collapse the pane. Drag and drop to rearrange items. To eliminate or rename a link, right-click it and choose Remove Link or Rename Link (or simply Rename). Some links (including Desktop and Computer) aren't removable, but you can customize links in the file list by clicking Links in the Folders tree that appears below Favorite Links.

My Recent Documents: Most file dialog boxes have a History (Windows 2000), My Recent Documents (XP), or Recent Places (Vista) shortcut in the Places Bar. Click it to see a list of recently accessed files and folders. In Windows 2000 and XP, you can filter the types of files in this list via the 'Files of type' drop-down menu at the bottom. In Vista, you can remove the current batch of shortcuts in Recent Places by right-clicking the icon and choosing Clear Recent Items List.

'File name' drop-down: A shorter list of recently used files lies in the 'File name' drop-down menu near the bottom of the dialog box. Click the arrow to the right to see the path of recently accessed files. To filter this list by file type, select the type from the 'Files of type' drop-down list (2000 and XP) or from the pop-up menu located to the right of the 'File name' box (Vista).

To open a recently used folder rather than a file, in Windows 2000 and XP, use the 'File name' drop-down menu to select a file located in the folder you need, press the right arrow key once to deselect the text in the 'File name' box, and press as many times as necessary to delete the file name, leaving only the path. Finally, press . The file list above switches to the desired folder. In Vista, the drop-down list at the top of Explorer and most file dialog boxes displays the full path to recently used folders and Web addresses. To return to one of those locations, just select the desired path and away you go.