How to customize the Places Bar in Office 2000 (205041)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Excel 2000
  • Microsoft Access 2000
  • Microsoft Outlook 2000
  • Microsoft Word 2000
This article was previously published under Q205041
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

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, and it contains shortcuts to the History, My Documents, Desktop, Favorites, and Web Folders folders.

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

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

To add user-defined entries to the Places Bar in the Office 2000 Save, Save As, and Open dialog boxes, follow these steps:
  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 Name for the Value data, where Name is the text displayed in the Places Bar for the shortcut that 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

You can also remove default icons from the Places Bar by modifying the system registry.

Note At least one icon will always be displayed in the Places Bar. If you attempt to remove all default icons from the Places Bar, the Desktop icon will remain. If you have added one custom icon, you will see it instead of the Desktop icon.

If your operating system is Microsoft Windows 2000, and you have Office 2000 SR-1, you can hide the Places Bar by using System Policies.

To view the Readme.doc, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2000/download/readme.doc

To remove each default icon from the Places Bar in the Office 2000 Save As and Open dialog boxes, follow these steps:
  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\StandardPlaces

  4. Double-click the StandardPlaces folder.
  5. Click the folder that you do not want to appear in the Places Bar. The following table lists the default items displayed in the Places Bar. 
       
   Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, and Microsoft Windows NT 4.0:
   
        Name in Registry     Name in Places Bar
        ---------------------------------------

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

   Microsoft Windows 2000:
   
        Name in Registry     Name in Places Bar
        ---------------------------------------

        Desktop              Desktop
        Favorites            Favorites
        MyDocuments          My Documents
        Publishing           My Network Places
        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.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:4/17/2006
Keywords:kbRegistry kbhowto kbinfo KB205041
©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.