Brendan Hughes

Dear All

Our office data (the work of 70 people) is on a massive network drive. It's split into folders for the units, then sub-folders for the projects in each unit, then old/current, then sections of project, then, then, then….

And my day-to-day work is done on a sub-sub-sub-sub…folder. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] Every time I want to look through Win Explorer to find a file in one of my ….sub-folders, I have to start at the drive letter and double-click eight times to get to where I want to be. Then I close it to be tidy, and a couple of hours later I want to find a new file, so I have to open it and go through all the double-clicking again.

Is there any way of circumventing this? Less sub-folders is not an option, nor is leaving the bloody thing open all day. In MS Word you can (and I have) set "File Location" to open by default at the appropriate sub-folder. In browsers you have bookmarks/favourites to jump to the right place. Is there any solution for Windows Explorer? We are on Windows 2000 network, if that helps.

Many thanks for any guidance

Brendan

ChrisB

Could you drop a Shortcut to that folder on your Desktop or (depending on the version of Windows) the Quick Launch toolbar?

If you did a Shortcut, you could assign it a hotkey too, so can get to that folder at any time.

mj

to add to what chris said, I would do the following:

create new folder within my documents

create the main folders within that folder to mimic the root tree ( is that the right terminology ?) of the drive / folders you want to shortcut to.

create and paste the relevant shortcuts into those folders, this can be done in multiples to your desktop then drag them in to the correct "dummy" folder.

customise the taskbar to expand my documents and the folders within.

if you dont already " expand my docs", you should - its a piece of p1ss to find files.


it may take a bit of setting up but it would be a doddle to use - it depends how often your company adds new files to the network drive.

theres a bloke on here called fosters who (from what iv'e seen) writes this sort of stuff - drop him a note.

when setting it up, to speed stuff up you could copy shortcuts to the "top"folders ( edit to say : what you have just red is bollox - make sure you paste shortcts of the new folders, not the originals) into the "send to" folder- then create multiple shortcuts/send to the relevant folder, working your way down the folders/tree if you get my drift. at the end of the setting up just clean up the "send to" folder - or leave it, as this will expand also.

does that make any sense ??







[Edited by mj - 1/15/2003 9:58:06 PM]

STi-Frenchie

Navigate your way to the folder on the drive you want and then map it to a drive letter using the menus.

Or is that too simplistic (meaning I didn't understand the problem)?

Or just drag the sucker onto the desktop then double-click on it for access?

mj

I got the impression that the problem was digging his way through the folders / sub folders, I think he wants a quicker way to the final files.

STi-Frenchie

I thought that's what the problem was mj. Easiest way I can see is to navigate to the folder using Windows Explorer and then use Favourites/Add to Favourites, which will bookmark (i.e. map) the location, then just go to it as you would do an internet URL, from the Favourites menu.

[Edited by STi-Frenchie - 1/15/2003 10:49:45 PM]

Brendan Hughes

Frenchie gets the prize, closely followed by ChrisB!

(Buggered if I could understand the rest of ya )

My problem was that I wanted to get to a sub-folder and display its contents (including other sub-folders), not to get to a specific file.

Really odd though. It seems that Win Explorer sometimes will allow the "Add to Favourites", and sometimes won't. Presumably it's a Windows thang, depending on what is highlighted. I flicked through the menus, saw it was available, then hunted down my correct sub-folder, went back and the Add To option had disappeared, leaving just the favourites but no indication of how to add to them. Closed WE, opened it again and it was back. Same thing happened to my colleague.

All is well now, and I hope the resulting time saved per day means I can read scoobynet a bit longer

Thanks for the help at all technical levels

Brendan

mj

the rest of ya - that'll be me!

In my defence i had been on the stella.........

Brendan Hughes

It wuz, wunnit? Sorry. Now we've lost the ability to read the thread while replying, I sort of forgot....

Am well annoyed, I wanted to post the picture in the If Ads Were Truthful that says "Stella: Makes You Talk Shyte", but the thread's been deleted!



BJH

mj

looking at it i wouldn't say sh1te - i'm sure it would work, but it would take about 3 weeks to set up.

GaryK

Explorer uses command line switches to determine where its display will open up. You can find a list in TIPS.TXT, which should be in your Windows folder (couldnt find it on my machine) or just do a search on M$ website.

Gary

Brendan Hughes

mj, apologies, wasn't meaning to be genuinely insulting

mj

i didn't think you were - did you get sorted in the end?

Brendan Hughes

Yup - "Add to favourites", as Frenchie suggested. Double bonus is that it works in MS Word now, as well as Windows Explorer.

Plenty more questions in the coming weeks, I suspect