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

Yesterday I told you about how to customize the places bar in Windows common file dialog boxes e.g. Open, Save, Browse dialog box:

How to Customize Default Places Bar in Windows Common File Dialog Box?

But you might have noticed that the trick mentioned in the above tutorial doesn't work of Microsoft Office. You'll still get the default places bar in Office applications.

So in this tutorial, I'll tell you a very easy method to customize the placed bar in Microsoft Office. This tutorial will work for Office XP, 2003 and 2007. Office 2000 doesn't allow to customize Places bar using this tutorial but you can use Microsoft official Places COM add-in for Office 2000 to customize the places easily.

So here we start the tutorial:

1. The default Office open/save dialog box looks like as following:

2. Now to add a new shortcut, select the desired item in the browse area and click on "Tools -> Add to "My Places" option:

3. It'll immediately add the shortcut to "Places Bar":

4. You can add up to 256 shortcuts using the same manner. A scrollbar is shown at top and bottom to navigate between the places:

5. You can also re-arrange items in Places Bar by right-clicking on an item and select "Move Up" or "Move Down":

6. You can resize the dialog box to show all shortcuts or you can set the Places Bar view to "Small Icons" by right-clicking in Places Bar and select "Small Icons":

7. To remove an item, right-click on it and select "Remove". You can't remove default items directly. But you can use registry to hide them. Look here.

NOTE: For Office 2007, you don't need to click on "Tools -> Add to "My Places" option. Browse to the folder which you want to add and then right-click in Places bar and select "Add folder name" option.

There is also a registry tutorial for customizing the Places bar using Registry editor:

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

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8 Comments

Jeet Chowdhury

Cool Bro... Btw Is There Some PowerToy For Free Like TweakUI In Vista????

Or Need To Make It Though Your Articles...
VG

Nope. Since is already available directly in dialog box, there is no powertoy available.
Hari Maurya

Superb...Nice trick Vishal !!!!
Riza

Woooooooooow. So simple. I needed to add places but I though it is impossible in 2003. Cool.
You rock, Vishal.
istanbuL

How do this in xp ,
not i ask that change to place0,1.2... 5 place ın regedit, or tweakui.

how to add more than 5 folder or drive.. that save/as-open common dialog ??
such uar showing this office tweak.. for xp small icon,8-10 custom folder/driver ..
how is it ,i dnt find any solution?

thanx..
Riza

istanbuL, I need this too but I think it's impossible. :S
Roxy Abr

Does this recommendation works in Windows 7?

Thanks

Roxy
VG

^^ Yes.