Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Changing the Startup Directory.

Changing the Startup Directory

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 6, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

When you first install Word, the working directory is set to a default directory, which is normally "My Documents." You may want to change the default location to match your working habits. You can quickly change the default startup directory by following these steps:

Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
Click on the File Locations tab. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The File Locations tab of the Options dialog box.

Make sure the Documents file type is selected, then click on the Modify button. Word displays a dialog box in which you can browse and select directories.
Select the directory you want used as the startup directory for your documents.
Click on the OK button.
Click on the Close button.
Exit and restart Word.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (136) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Changing the Startup Directory.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Protecting Parts of a Document

Word doesn't require you to protect entire documents. Instead, you can protect different sections within a document, as ...

Discover More

How Word Handles Abbreviations

Abbreviations appear all over the place in our society. If you want to understand how Word recognizes them (which it has ...

Discover More

Highlighting Duplicate Words

One way to help improve your writing is to minimize the number of duplicated words you use in your prose. Depending on ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Cannot Convert a Document File to a Readable Document

Open a Word document file, and you can start to make edits and changes to your heart's content. But what happens if the ...

Discover More

Open Documents Suddenly Become Read-Only

If a Word document is marked as "read only," that means that you cannot save updates to the document; they must be saved ...

Discover More

Opening Documents in Print Layout View

If you have a Word 2003 document that always seems to open in reading layout mode, you may want to turn that "feature" ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 2 + 8?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.