How to nail file display settings to the wall in a dialog box?

S

Sandy Sanders

I'd like to change some default settings, but it involves
something that is very difficult to search on and so far I
couldn't find anything... It's a bit lengthy to explain,
so please, bear with me.

When you use windows explorer, you can customise it to
display files, folders and their attributes and how they
are ordered to your liking. E.g. you can have files listed
in ascending/descending alphabetical order. So far so good.

When you are using various applications (word, excel...)
and you try to open a file, you are presented with a file
selection dialog box which is like a mini windows
explorer. You can also customise this. For example, the
default may be that you only see folder icons that are
ordered by some weird "last time edited a file in it"
order. When you have a large number of subdirectories and
people editing files in them all the time, it can really
be trying your patience to find what you want. So, you
customise it by clicking on the "view menu" icon at the
top right of the dialog box and breathe some sense in it.
Next time you open the same dialog box, it'll appear just
the way you wanted it...

....that is, until you shut the application down. Next time
you open it, the file explorer dialogue box is back to its
dumb, default state. It's driving me nuts.

The question is, is it possible to set a customised OS-
wide (XP, of course) default for the display of
files/folders in the dialogue box?

They probably can be set by entering something in the
registry. Since defaults vary among applications, they
can probably be set for individual applications, too. In
that case, it would be nice to know the solution for at
least the most popular apps like word and the
unmentionable (adobe acrobat).

Perhaps, it sounds like an obscure minor problem for some,
but let me assure you, since I use a lot of applications
all day, I probably wasted quite a bit of time on it, not
to mention the frustration.

Can you help? Even if you don't have the full solution,
any pointers, no matter how vague, would be appreciated.

Sandy
 
G

Guest

What a said loser replies to his own post? Apparently, I
do...

Anyway, the problem I was discribing does not seem to
apply to Microsoft applications, even the setting of the
size of the dialog box seems to stick. (I'm not sure why
it didn't work for me before.)

It only seems to be a problem with non-Microsoft
applications, so perhaps, I have to take it up with their
support.

Sandy
 
H

Hilary Karp

Sandy, this doesn't do what you want but what about using the Recent
Documents list from the Start button and/or a good search program like
AgentRansack. They can greatly cut down the time on finding recently
used files.
 

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