5 Things You Should Know about My Documents folder

My Documents is a special folder that first made its appearance in Windows 95. It was intended to help users keep track of their documents and other files created with Microsoft programs.

1. Programs such as MSWord and MSExcel assume that My Documents folder will be the central storage folder for your documents and files, therefore when you use Open or Save As within these programs, My Documents displays in the dialog window.
2. Because My Documents is a special file, Windows considers it a system file and won't let you delete it.
3. My Documents folder is tied to the Documents option on your Start Menu. The Documents Menu shows you up to the last 15 documents or files you worked on and can be a quick way to return to a document or file. Simply display the Start Menu with your mouse, move to Documents and when the Documents Menu appears, move and click the file name. This opens the program used to create the file and opens the file.
4. You can get more out of the My Documents folder by creating new folders within My Documents to organize your files. For example, I have created folders for each of our clients to hold the files I develop for that customer. When using Windows Explorer to create folders: open Windows Explorer, highlight My Documents folder with your mouse on the left hand side, use File|New|Folder to create your new folder on the right hand side of the window, type in the folder name and hit the Enter Key.
5. You can also create new folders in My Documents on the fly from the Save and Save As dialogue box in Microsoft programs. When you have the dialogue box open, look at the top of the box for the icon with a folder symbol that has an * at the corner. If you move your mouse over this icon it should display Create New Folder. Click on this icon and a message box will appear that tells you what path it will use to create the new folder such as C:\My Documents and gives you a text box in which to enter the new folder name. Click Okay after entering the name or cancel to abandon the process. Now you can click with your mouse to open the new folder and then save your file.