If you're looking at a file or folder icon in Explorer, making a Shortcut to that item is easy: just right-drag the icon to the destination of your choice (desktop or other Explorer or folder window), and choose Create Shortcut(s) Here when you see the menu. But what if the folder or document you want a Shortcut for is open? Here are a couple of tricks for getting around this problem:

1. Currently open folder (Win 95, NT 4.0). Making a Shortcut to a currently open folder is straightforward if you're using the two-pane Explorer window: Simply right-drag the folder icon from the tree pane. But if you're looking at an open folder window with no tree pane, use this workaround: Press <Backspace> to move up a level, and then right-drag the icon of the folder you were in.

2. Currently open folder (IE 4.0, Win 98). If you're working in Windows 98 or have installed the Windows Desktop Update for Internet Explorer 4.0, drag the folder icon in the upper left corner of the window (the one you click to see the Control menu) to the location of your choice.

3. Currently open file. If you're working on a file and want to save a Shortcut to it without hunting down its icon in Explorer, perform the following steps: first, if you haven't previously saved the file to disk, do so now. To make the Shortcut, choose File-Save As. The icon should be visible in the dialogue box. Right-drag the icon out of the dialogue box, and drop it on the desktop or in any folder window. This tip assumes that your application uses the Windows 98 common file dialogue boxes; Microsoft's own Word and Excel programs do not. For those applications, try copying a Shortcut from the Start-Documents menu (where your new file should appear). Open the menu, and use the right-side mouse button to drag the icon to a new location; then choose Copy Here or Create Shortcut(s) Here.