OFF2000: How to Customize the Places Bar

• Microsoft Office 2000
• Microsoft Word 2000
• Microsoft Excel 2000
• Microsoft Office Binder 2000
• Microsoft Access 2000

SUMMARY

This article explains how to add user-defined entries to the Places Bar in the Office 2000 Save As and Open dialog boxes.

If you want to do this, you must modify or add the registry keys and entries described below. Office 2000 applications can display up to 10 user-defined items (Place1 through Place10). You can display only five user-defined items if you also show all the default-predefined items. If you turn off (disable) the predefined items, you can display up to 10 user-defined items.

NOTE: The Places Bar is the bar on the left side of certain dialog boxes that contains shortcuts to the History, My Documents, Desktop, Favorites, and Web Folders folders.

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

NOTES

• Do not change entries in the registry while a Save As or Open dialog box is open. When the dialog box closes, it automatically overwrites the registry settings with the settings that the dialog box was opened with.



• In Microsoft Word, this also affects the Places Bar in the Insert File and Insert Picture dialog boxes.

Adding a User-Defined Entry to the Places Bar

1. Click Start, and click Run.



2. In the Open box, type regedit and click OK.



3. Locate and select the following key:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Open Find\Places

   NOTE: The Readme.doc file contains incorrect registry path information for setting the ItemSize DWORD setting. The Readme.doc file is located in the root of the Microsoft Office 2000 Resource Kit CD-ROM.



4. On the Edit menu, point to New, click DWORD value, and name the DWORD value ItemSize. Right-click Name and click Modify. Type 0 for the Value data, and click OK.
   
   ItemSize sets the use of large or small icons in the Places Bar. You can only display five large icons if you set ItemSize to 1. The Places Bar section in the Office 2000 Save As and Open dialog boxes does not scroll, and you are limited to a maximum of 10 items in small icon format.



5. Locate and select the following key:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Open Find\Places\UserDefinedPlaces




6. On the Edit menu, point to New, click Key, and name the key PlaceX, where X is a numeral between 1 and 10.



7. On the Edit menu, point to New, click String value, and name the String value Name. Right-click Name and click Modify. Type DisplayName for the Value data, where DisplayName is the text displayed in the Places Bar for the shortcut you are adding. Click OK.



8. On the Edit menu, point to New, click String value, and name the String value Path. Right-click Path and click Modify. Type PathName for the Value data, where PathName contains the entry to any drive or UNC path combination. Click OK.



9. On the Edit menu, point to New, click DWORD value, and name the DWORD value SortAscending. Right-click SortAscending and click Modify. Type 1 for the Value data, and click OK.
   
   If SortAscending is set to 1 and Index is set to 0, it places the user-defined item in ascending order within the list of user-defined items.



10. On the Edit menu, point to New, click DWORD value, and name the DWORD value Index. Right-click Index and click Modify. Type 0 for the Value data, and click OK.
    
    If Index is set to 1 through 10, the PlaceX Name entry appears in that position in the user-defined list and ignores the sort order.



11. On the Registry menu, click Exit.

Removing a Default Icon in the Places Bar

1. Click Start, and click Run.



2. In the Open box, type regedit and click OK.



3. Locate and select the following key:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Open Find\StandardPlaces




4. Double-click the StandardPlaces folder.



5. Click on the folder you do not want to appear in the Places Bar.
   
   The following table lists the default items displayed in the Places Bar.




Name in Registry     Name in Places Bar
---------------------------------------

Desktop              Desktop
Favorites            Favorites
MyDocuments          My Documents
Publishing           Web Folders
Recent               History 

6. On the Edit menu, point to New, click DWORD value, and name the DWORD value Show. Right-click Name and click Modify. Type 0 for the Value data, and click OK.
   
   The DWORD value "Show set to 1" displays the icon, whereas "Show set to 0" hides the icon.



7. On the Registry menu, click Exit.

Additional query words: OFF2000

Keywords : kbdta wd2000
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto kbinfo