Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Technical Help and How To's Microsoft Word in XP

Okay, so I've got this fancy new computer, and I've been playing around with all the new programs... but it's one of the old ones that's making me tear my hair out. Okay, no actual hair loss, but it's annoying

Anyway... when I "open file" from inside Word, it opens up just to "My Documents" -- how do I get that to change to opening in one of my sub-folders?

And is there anyway to set up the sort function to keep subfolders on top, with most recent files underneath?? I've got this whole tree of subfolders set up to organize my files, but it doesn't want to show me the subfolders at the top of the list -- or at any rate, the subfolders sort along with the oldest files! Arrgh.

In general, I'm finding file management to be annoying in XP... any tricks or tips? Or do I need to forget everything I think I know and learn a whole new way to keep track of my thousands of .doc and text files??

PJ

Not sure why the subfolders aren't showing up on top, Pam. They're supposed to. I wouldn't know how to change that... Unless we're thinking of two different things. Where, exactly, are you expecting the subfolders to show up?

The other thing, I can help you with...

Go to tools, then options. Pick the "file locations" tab and click "modify." Change the doccuments directory to whatever you want, and that should work.

Paul

I know how to solve the other problem. I've had the same problem - still do sometimes, actually - and it's easy to solve.

Just go to the directory of My Documents, not inside Word. Then there's something called 'image' on top (third option) and go to 'file pictograms on'. I'm not sure it's called that in English, since I've got everything set to Dutch... Anyway, there you can put it to automatic and in what order you want the files to show up.

I hope that makes sense.

Saskia

That would probably be the "view" menu, which is available on any folder (not just "my doccuments"). I don't see an option like the one you mention, though. There is an option to see the folder as thumbnails, icons, a list, etc., but that doesn't change how they're sorted. There is another menu off the view menu that lets you choose to arrange the icons in different ways. "Arrange Icons by..." Name, Size, Type, or Modified (date last accessed). Modified is probably what you're looking for.

There's also a "show in groups" option there which is interesting, but probably not what you want. Then again, maybe that's the problem. If it's checked, uncheck it and choose "auto arrange" instead. Actually, be sure to have "auto arrange" checked in any case. That should help to some degree.

Also, while you're going through those menus, there's one over in the "Tools" menu which is kind of helpful. It's at the bottom, and it's called "Folder Options." There are a lot of little options there for how files are displayed in the folders, and you can choose to apply them to individual folders or all of them at once.

Good luck, Pam.

Paul

That's exactly what I mean, Paul! It should at least solve Pam's problem.

Now if anyone knows how I can change the language of my computer to English instead of Dutch, I'd be happy to know. It would help explaining things when you just have to translate names now and know it's not right.

Saskia

That's in the Control Panel, Sas. Not sure what it's called in Dutch, but it's available directly off the start menu and also from the "my computer" folder (the one that shows all your drives).

On the Control Panel, there's an option to set Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options. You can add and change languages from there. Keep an eye out for Regional and Language Options.

Paul

I'm in the middle of a love-hate relationship with XP WORD. On the one hand, I'm finding some of the auto-functions pretty cool and helpful. But others...eeesh.

Top of my most annoying list right now? Smart tags that keep asking me if I want to email Lois Lane every time I type her name in a file. Although...could be interesting if I said yes, I suppose....

And the fact that I've only just realized that sometimes when I mis-type a word, XP decides to guess what I meant and put in the 'right' one - which half the time is something totally out of context and not what I meant at all. And it does it without telling me! The git. For a while there I thought I was going senile, typing in all these bizarre words that had no relation to what I was saying...

LabRat

XP does me the same way, Lab. Like some functions, hate others. I use Wordpad most of the time instead of Word. I've lost several documents because Word freezes and shuts down without saving anything. But, Lab, I do know you can disable that auto-spell check thingy. Can't remember how, but I did that once.

SQD (who sometimes wonders if computers are worth the hassle!)

Oh, that reminds me of my very first upgrade up from electric typewriter - the little Amstrad word processor. They were enormously popular here in the UK, at the time. Heaven knows why.

You had to save files to floppy disk. It had the delightful habit of not informing you you'd run out of disk space until it happened. So you ended up losing the 15 pages of story you'd just spent the last three hours typing.

And it had no end of file option. So you had to manually scroll down to the bottom of a file. On a long story I often lost the urge to write by the time I got to where I needed to start. I shudder to think how frustrating Masques would have been to write on that.

And yet, frustrating as it was, I still have a soft spot for that little guy. Probably because it was my first experience of wonderful features like cut and paste, spellcheckers and no typpex or carbon paper! That had to count for something.


LabRat

Thanks, Sas and Paul -- I'm trying those, but they don't seem to help. Problem is, when I sort a list of files (I use the "detail" view and sort by "date modified") from oldest to newest, it lists all the subfolders from oldest to newest, then all the files from oldest to newest. Except I have files dating back to '98 or '99, so to get to my new files, I have to scroll to the end of the flippin' list. If I switch the order around, from newest to oldest, then the recent files are right on top, but the subfolders have disappeared

That's in My Documents, but Word seems to work the exact same way.

I have quite a complicated setup of folders and subfolders -- when I have an urge to read Nan Smith fic, for instance, I can go right to "C:\Documents and Settings\Pamela Jernigan\My Documents\Data1\fanfic\ByAuthors\Nan Smith" but then if I want to go back to the story I'm working on, I have to navigate up to Data1 and then down through Pamfic. Which also has a bunch of subfolders.

On Word 97, the folders were *always* on top of the list, no matter which way you sorted them...

I think Microsoft is going to force me to change my whole way of thinking... I hate that.

edit: the "file location" thing in Word worked fine, Paul, thanks, and I should have remembered that one myself

PJ