Australian PC World - Keep current files handy

Keep current files handy

Tip
The Documents menu is a handy way of opening recently used files (select Start--Documents). Unfortunately, if you work with many applications or browse through a lot of folders, the file you want probably won't be there, because the menu has a limit of 15 documents. And although the Documents menu represents Shortcuts found in Windows\Recent, simply copying Shortcuts to this folder won't make them appear in the Documents menu.
Here are a couple of tricks for keeping your current work handy.

Access recent documents by keeping their Shortcuts in a Recent folder Shortcut on your desktop
First, if you really want a file to appear in the Documents menu, choose Start--Run and then click Browse. For Files of Type, choose All Files (*.*). Navigate to the file that you want to see in the Documents menu, select it, and then click Open. This puts the file's name in the Run dialogue box and adds it to the Documents menu. To continue adding more files to the menu, click Browse again and repeat the process as many times as you like. When you're finished click Cancel, or click OK to open the file that's currently displayed in the Run box. This trick can be useful if you expect to work with a series of documents whose applications don't list recently used files.
If all of this seems like too much work, you may find it handier just to keep a window or two open on your desktop with the Shortcuts you need. One way of doing this is to select the Recent folder in your Windows folder using Explorer, right-click and drag it to the desktop, and then choose Create Shortcut(s) Here from the pop-up menu. Drag and drop your Shortcuts to other files onto the Recent Shortcut. Now when you need a file, just double-click the Recent Shortcut and find the Shortcut to the file you want. Using the Recent folder is handy because some of the Shortcuts there will be inserted automatically by Windows.
- Scott Dunn

Category: Win95
Issue: Apr 1998