How to customize the My Places bar in both the Open and the Save As dialog boxes in Office (826214)

SUMMARY

This article describes how to customize the My Places bar in Microsoft Office. The My Places bar appears in the left pane of both the Open and the Save As dialog boxes in Microsoft Office programs.

The following customizations are available for the My Places bar.

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How to Add Items to the My Places Bar

To add an item to the My Places bar, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu in any Office program, click Open.
2. In the Open dialog box, select the item that you want to add in the contents pane. For example, in the Look in list, click My Documents. On the Contents pane, click My Pictures.
3. Click Tools, and then click Add to My Places.

Note You can add up to 256 items to the My Places bar.

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How to Remove Items from the My Places Bar

To remove an item from the My Places bar, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu in any Office program, click Open.
2. On the My Places bar, right-click the item that you want to remove, and then click Remove.

Note The following default items that appear on the My Places bar cannot be removed or renamed.

Office 2003

• My Recent Documents
• Desktop
• My Documents
• My Computer
• My Network Places

Office 2002

• History
• My Documents
• Desktop
• Favorites
• My Network Places

These items can be hidden from the My Places bar. For an example of how to hide a Standard place, view the "Registry Entry Reference" section.

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How to Rename Items on the My Places Bar

To rename an item on the My Places bar, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu in any Office program, click Open.
2. On the My Places bar, right-click the item that you want, and then click Rename.
3. In the Rename Place dialog box, type the name that you want, and then click OK.

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How to Rearrange Items on the My Places Bar

To rearrange items on the My Places bar, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu in any Office program, click Open.
2. On the My Places bar, right-click the item that you want to move, and then click Move Up or Move Down.

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How to Change the Size of Icons on the My Places Bar

To change the size of an icon for an item on the My Places bar, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu in any Office program, click Open.
2. Right-click a blank area of the My Places bar, and then click Small Icons or Large Icons.

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How to Edit the Registry to Hide Desktop Items

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

You can hide default icons on the My Places bar by modifying the system registry.

Note At least one icon must always appears on the My Places bar. If you try to remove all the default icons on the My Places bar, the Desktop icon will remain. If you add one custom icon, you will see that custom icon instead of the Desktop icon. To hide the Desktop item on the My Places bar, follow these steps:

1. Quit all Office programs.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
4. Expand the following subkey.
   
   Office 2003

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\Open Find\Places\StandardPlaces

   Office XP

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Common\Open Find\Places\StandardPlaces

5. On the File menu, click Export.
6. In the Export Registry File dialog box, type Export to Office in the File name box, and then click Save.
7. Click Desktop.
8. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
9. In the New Value#1 box, type Show, and then press ENTER.
10. Right-click Show, and then click Modify.
11. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type 0 in the Value data box, and then click OK.
12. Quit Registry Editor.

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Registry Entry Reference

Entries on the My Places bar are contained in the following registry key.

Office 2003 Office XPThe Places key contains the following two subkeys:

• StandardPlaces
• UserDefinedPlaces

The StandardPlaces Subkey

This subkey contains the following five keys that correspond to the five default items that appear on the My Places bar:

KEY NAME	MY PLACES ITEM
Desktop	Desktop
MyComputer	MyComputer
MyDocuments	My Documents
Publishing	My Network Places
Recent	History

The UserDefinedPlaces Subkey

This subkey contains keys that correspond to items that are added to the My Places bar. The keys in the following table are examples of keys that are in the UserDefinedPlaces subkey:

KEY NAME	MY PLACES ITEM
Place0	firstplaceadded
Place1	secondplaceadded
Place2	thirdplaceadded

The following values can be used for keys that are contained in both the StandardPlaces and the UserDefinedPlaces keys:

NAME	TYPE	DATA OPTIONS
View	DWORD	{1=List, 2=Details, 3=Summary, 4=Preview}
ArrangeBy	DWORD	{1=Name, 2=Type, 3=Size, 4=Date}
SortAscending	DWORD	Boolean to sort both ascending and descending.
Index	DWORD	Relative position on the My Places bar.
Show	DWORD	Zero to hide a Standard place.

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