Tips and Tricks, March, 2004

Every month I get to come up with a whole new set of tips and tricks. I glean some of them from my own use, some from magazines and newsletters, both print and electronic, some from web sites and some from other people. If you’re one of the “other people” with some tips, send them on to me.

A couple of months ago, Paul Cooper provided us with a list of specifications for buying a new computer. Here is the table he provided:

My Recent Documents

I have not made much use of “My Recent Documents” in Windows XP, mostly out of old habit, but I am discovering that it can be a useful tool, especially when your short term memory is going or when you have what one of my former secretaries called a “brain fart.”

Let’s start with turning the list on and off. To access the properties of the list, right-click in the Start Menu (either right click on the Start button and select properties or click on the Start button and right click on the Start Menu). Click the tab for Start Menu, then the Customize button, and finally on the Advanced tab. You will find

Note that you can set what will display on the Start menu and how it will behave.

Recent Documents is at the bottom. In order to show most your recent documents, you have to check the box. You can also clear the box from here. Click OK twice and you should then have an entry on your Start Menu for My Recent Documents.

The listing includes 15 documents. There is probably a registry setting that allows you to change that number, but I haven’t found it yet. The documents on the list are in a folder with the path, C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Recent Documents. If you have multiple users, the path will change--Owner to the User name. It is a hidden file, so you won’t see it unless you have your folder options set to display hidden files. The default setting is to not display them so make the change if necessary.

Ok, so now you know how to enable or disable the list. Here is a trick from Steve Bass in PC World for making the list accessible another way—make it into a shortcut on your desktop. To do that, navigate to the folder, C:\Documents and Settings\Owner, again substituting the user name if necessary. Locate the My Recent Documents folder and right click on it and drag it to the Desktop. Let the button go and select “Create Shortcut Here from the list. Now you will have folder with all the items in the folder, not just the 15 that show in the list. The down side is that you may want to clear the list occasionally. I am not sure how it determines what goes and what stays, but I found files from 2001 in the folder, but not everything single document I worked on in that time was on it.

Windows puts all documents that you have opened in the folder, including logs created by other programs. Not only can you then find the file you worked on recently, you get kind of a snapshot of what’s been happening in the background. My folder had a log created when a certain program was started and closed on my system.

Applications have similar recent document lists from the File menu. You can change the setting for the number of files that displays. In Office applications, you select Tools, then Options. The option for the number of files is on the “General” tab.

You can make changes to Windows and to many applications to suit the way you work. Keep exploring the options on your computer. I learn something new every time I start working on this column and I haven’t run out yet.