T 'n' T: Readers' Greatest Hits Opening the Tips 'n' Tricks Mailbag Gregg Keizer
Mon 7/8/02 -- Yes, people do read this column. I have proof: e-mails that readers have sent asking for tips, suggesting tips, and most embarrassing of all, calling me on the carpet for mistakes I've made. Hey, I'm only human.
This week's five-spot, therefore, comes courtesy of Tips 'n' Tricks readers. What's with the rest of you? Have an itch for a better way to do something in Windows? E-mail me, and I'll try to come up with a solution -- or at least tell you when I'm stumped.
When all else fails... A few weeks ago, I told you how to make Windows remember each folder's view settings so that when you reopen a folder, it'll look like it did the last time. But a reader named Martino intelligently asked, "What do you do when Explorer just refuses to remember the settings, even when [the "Remember each folder's view settings" box] has been checked?" Good question.
Windows is flaky; we know that. And sometimes telling Windows to remember each folder's fashion just doesn't seem to stick. (Don't ask me why -- even Microsoft doesn't seem to know.) But I have a couple of things that Martino, and the rest of you, can try.
From within Windows Explorer, open a folder whose layout you like (or set up the characteristics now). From the Tools menu, pick Folder Options and click the View tab. Click the "Apply to All Folders" button, then click OK.
Another trick is to hold down the Ctrl key while closing a folder window. This may be enough to force the folder to remember its settings.
INI, not INF. Chuck from Phoenix pointed out an egregious error in a tip(now edited -- Ed.) that explained how to change the OEM information in the System Control Panel applet. Boneheaded me said to find the text file OEMINFO.INF to edit the text that touts the computer manufacturer.
What I should have said, and what Chuck so gracefully reminded me, was that you should instead dig up the file OEMINFO.INI. A one-letter mistake, but a stupid one nonetheless.
Right-click maniac. Claudio thanked me for the recent tip on using the SendTo folder, but wanted more. Specifically, he wrote, in Windows XP's (and Windows Me's) compressed folders -- an integrated feature, akin to the popular WinZip utility, that lets you squeeze files in size before archiving or e-mailing -- "the files' context menus do not have a Send To submenu. Is there a way to add it? Or shall we wait for the next Windows upgrade?"
No need to wait, Claudio. Although I couldn't come up with a simple way to add an Extract command to Windows compressed archives' own right-click menu, you can do what I do: use WinZip's right-click context menu to extract files from compressed folders. Most other compression utilities provide right-click decompression from within Windows Explorer, too -- ZipMagic 4.0, StuffIt Expander, and ZipZag, to name a few.
More Explorer keystroke shortcuts. Jodi tossed her two cents in on Windows keystroke shortcuts by reminding all of us that pressing the Windows logo and E launches the Explorer file manager. I think I already said that somewhere, but Jodi's hint made me think of some other shortcuts I use once Explorer is open. Such as:
On the numeric keypad, press the plus (+) key to expand the current selection. All subfolders under the selected folder appear.
To reverse the process -- i.e., to collapse the currently selected folder -- press the keypad minus key. (The main keyboard plus and hyphen won't work.)
Pressing the right arrow key expands the current selection if it's not already expanded. If it is, the selection goes to the first folder.
Likewise, the left arrow key collapses the current folder if it's already expanded, or moves the highlight to the parent folder if it isn't.
Remember, darn it! Frank said Windows was driving him nuts. Every time he wanted to open a file with an application -- whether Word or Excel, WordPerfect or PowerPoint -- he had to scroll through long lists of alphabetically sorted files in the program's File/Open dialog. Like most of us, he usually opens recently edited files, not ancient documents from days gone by, so Frank wanted to see the Open dialog sorted by date instead of alphabetically. And -- no pun intended -- frankly, so did I, for this same behavior's been bothering me for ages. Here goes.
Open Windows Explorer from My Computer. From the View menu, select Details.
Click the Date Modified column to sort by date (click again if necessary, so the most recently altered files are at the top).
Hold down the Ctrl key and quit Explorer by clicking the close (X) box in the upper right corner.
Release the Ctrl key and restart your PC.
Now when you choose File/Open from any application, the Open dialog automatically sorts files by date. (You can use this same trick to force Open and Save As dialogs to sort by other criteria, such as size or type as well as alphabetically by name. Just click the appropriate column in the second step above.)
