Moving Quickly Between Directories

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 27, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

If you work with quite a few Word documents at the same time, it is not unusual to need to change directories frequently when opening files. This can involve quite a bit of clicking or typing, depending on whether you rely on the keyboard or the mouse. If you prefer to use the keyboard and you need to change directories a lot, here is an approach that may save you some time and effort.

  1. Press Ctrl+O to display the Open dialog box. The insertion point is in the File Name field.
  2. Type the file paths that you frequently use, presenting Enter after each one.

This may not seem like much, but in the future when you need to switch to a directory, you simply press Ctrl+O and then repeatedly press the Down Arrow until you see the directory you want. Press Enter, and you are there!

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (557) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Viewing Files of a Certain Type

When you choose to open a file, Word normally displays only those files that end with the .DOC extension. If you want to ...

Discover More

Detailed Measurements

Want to know exactly how far something on the ruler is from the left and right margins of your document? It's easy to ...

Discover More

Changing How Footnote References Appear

Footnote references normally appear as superscripted digits, both in the main body of your document and in the footnotes ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 365 applications with VBA programming. Written in clear terms and understandable language, the book includes systematic tutorials and contains both intermediate and advanced content for experienced VB developers. Designed to be comprehensive, the book addresses not just one Office application, but the entire Office suite. Check out Mastering VBA for Microsoft Office 365 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Setting a Default Document Format

Word allows you to save your documents in a variety of different formats. You can specify the format when you actually ...

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

Read-Only Documents

Using both Word and Windows, there are a variety of ways you can mark a file as read-only so that it cannot be changed. ...

Discover More
Subscribe

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.

What is two minus 0?

2015-07-25 11:43:50

Fred Burg

If one has folders set up on a project basis, then you may want to switch to folders in an Open dialogue when in Word or in Excel or any other program. It's unclear if this tip would provide the file path info if you're in Excel if it was entered in Word. So what I do is create shortcuts in folders that allow me to easily switch to other commonly used folder. So if I'm in an Open dialogue in Word, I can easily switch to another folder by clicking the shortcut.


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.

Videos
Subscribe

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

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.