How to Customize the Places Bar in Common File Dialog Box in Microsoft Office Using Registry?

Recently I posted a tutorial for customizing the Places bar in common file dialog box in Microsoft Office:

How to Customize the Places Bar in Common File Dialog Box in Microsoft Office?

The above tutorial doesn't work for Office 2000 because Office 2000 doesn't allow to add new shortcuts into Places bar. But there is a way to add your desired shortcuts even in Office 2000 using Registry editor.

So in this tutorial, I'll tell you how to use Windows registry to add your desired shortcuts in Places bar in common file dialog box under Microsoft Office. It'll work for all Office versions.

So here we start the tutorial:

1. Open regedit and go to following key:

For Office 2000:

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

For Office XP:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Common\Open Find\Places

For Office 2003:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\Open Find\Places

For Office 2007:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Open Find\Places

2. Now under "Places" key, create a new key "UserDefinedPlaces".

3. Again create a new key under "UserDefinedPlaces" and give it name "Place0".

4. Select this new key "Place0" and in right-side pane, create a new String value "Name" and set its value to the desired label which you want to display in Places bar.

5. Now again create another new String value "Path" and set its value to the desired path which should open when you click on the shortcut in Places bar.

6. You can create more shortcuts using steps 3-5. Just increase the number in "Place0" with 1, e.g. Place1, Place2, Place3 and so on.

NOTE: Office 2000 only allows maximum 10 shortcuts in Places bar. Since there are already 5 default shortcuts, you are limited to add only 5 new shortcuts. To add your 5 extra shortcuts in Office 2000 Places bar, you'll need to set Places bar view to "Small Icons" because Office 2000 Places bar doesn't show scrollbar to navigate between shortcuts. You can set the view to Small Icons using following step:

Go to following key:

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

And in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value "ItemSize" and set its value to 0.

Now you can add 5 more shortcuts in Office 2000 Places bar using steps 3-5. Also start key names from Place1 instead of Place0, Office 2000 doesn't recognize Place0.

BONUS TIP

If you want to remove default 5 shortcuts from the Places bar, you can do it using following steps:

1. Go to "StandardPlaces" key.

2. Now you'll see 5 more keys under this key. Select the key which you don't want to show in Places bar and in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value "Show" and set its value to 0.

3. That's it. Now that shortcut will not appear in Places bar.

This article was posted in Microsoft Office.

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6 Comments

Michael

Hey VG,

This question may be off-topic, but just wanted to ask you. After installing sp3 on xp, my computer just crashed. All the icons in the start menu where gone and all my files and apps.

I don't really think that it was spyware. Maybe i had a software that caused this. Do you know anything about VideoGet.

Cause when i was using it, then i don't know what happen to the program it just froze and then i minimized it, then everything in my computer was gone. All the apps like i mentioned above. So what do you think??

Was the service pack 3 or the software VideoGet??

Sorry, I just wanted to ask you cause you are a really cool person, cause you help lots of people
VG

^^ Its really strange as the software is reliable. I advise you to post your HijackThis log file in following topic:

http://www.askvg.com/is-your-system-infected-with-a-virus-spyware-adware-trojan/
Riza

Nice.
Is theere possibility to delete any standard place?
I think not possible but maybe...
VG

^^ Please check the "Bonus Tip" at last.
Riza

Wooooooooooow.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, big Vishal.
Alexa

Thanks a lot. This really helped.