Australian PC World - MS Office shortcut bar

MS Office shortcut bar

Tip
A number of readers wrote to point out that the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar behaves strangely with customised right-mouse menus. With any new command added to your right-mouse menu, a left-click on a button in the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar runs the new command rather than the Office button function. This problem also occurs if you double-click the Microsoft Network icon on your desktop. Weird, but true. Here are some solutions.
First, the easy fix: instead of left-clicking items on the Shortcut Bar (or the Microsoft Network icon), right-click and then choose Open. This requires one more click, but you don't have to do any more tweaking.
Another solution is to dump the Office Shortcut Bar and put its items on a Start menu submenu instead. Here's how: Right-click the Start button and choose Open. In a blank area of the window, right-click and choose New--Folder. Name the folder Office (or whatever you wish). Next, right-click the Office button on the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar and choose Open. Select the items in this window that you really want in your new menu, and use the right mouse button to drag and drop them onto the Office folder you just created. Choose Create Shortcut(s) Here.
Finally, navigate to the Startup folder in the Programs folder and remove or delete the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar Shortcut. Now just choose Start--Office to get the same items you had on the Shortcut bar.
If that's not an option, you can still have your cake and eat it too: First, remove the new items you added to your right-mouse menu: In Explorer, choose View--Options and click the File Types tab. Select the * file type and click Edit. Select an item in the Actions list and click Edit. Make a note of the batch file or application listed for ?Application used to perform action'. Then click Cancel. With the action still selected in the Action list, click Remove, and click Yes. Repeat for all actions, then close all dialogue boxes.
Next, in Explorer, locate one of the batch files whose menu item you removed (for example, renamer.bat). With the right-mouse button, drag and drop the file on the SendTo folder in the Windows folder. Choose Create Shortcut(s) Here. Then open the SendTo folder and rename the Shortcut anything you want (for example, Rename with extension). To invoke the batch file, right-click on a file and choose SendTo and then your Shortcut's name.
Finally, if you just want a way to change the extension of a file without changing your extension-hiding preference each time, check out the freeware utility Change File Type 96. It's easy to install and use, and it adds an extension-renaming function to your right-mouse menu similar to renamer.bat, but without the side effects. This utility is available at the US PC World Online as filetype.zip.
- Scott Dunn

Category: Win95, Word processing
Issue: Dec 1996
Pages: 161