With a set of personal folders, Windows makes it easy to manage the personal and business files and folders you work with every day. My Documents is a personal folder that contains additional personal folders, such as My Pictures, My Music, and My Videos. Depending on previous installation, devices installed, or other users, your personal folders might differ . You can access your personal My Documents folder from the Start menu. In the My Documents folder, you can view file information, organize files and folders, and open files and folders. Once you open more than one folder, you can use buttons on the Standard Buttons toolbar to help you move quickly between folders. View and Open My Documents -
| Click the Start button, and then click My Documents. | -
| Click a file to select it. | -
| Review the tasks you can do with the selected file. | -
| Click to display details about the file. | -
| Double-click the file to open it. | -
| Use the scroll bars to view additional documents. Drag the scroll box, or click the scroll arrows. | -
| When you're done, click the Close button. | Did You Know? Windows creates a separate My Documents folder for each user . When you share a computer, Windows creates a separate My Documents folder and stores personalized settings for each user. Each user's My Documents folder is located in the Documents And Settings folder under the user's name on the local hard disk. | Open Any Folder -
| Click the Start button, and then click My Documents. | -
| Click a folder to select it. | -
| Review the tasks you can do with the selected folder. | -
| Click to display details about the folder. | -
| Double-click the folder to open it. | -
| Click the Back button or Forward button on the toolbar to return or move to a previously visited window. | -
| When you're done, click the Close button. | Did You Know? Windows stores music and picture files in separate folders in My Documents . Windows stores music files in the My Music folder and pictures in the My Pictures folder, which you can access from the Start menu. | See Also See " Changing the Window View " on page 56 for information on changing the display of a folder's contents. | For Your Information Opening a Document with a Different Program Most documents on your desktop are associated with a specific program. For example, if you double-click a document whose file name ends with the three-letter extension ".txt," Windows XP automatically opens the document with Notepad, a text-only editor. There are situations, though, when you need to open a document with a program other than the one Windows chooses, or when you want to choose a different default program. For example, you might want to open a text document in WordPad rather than Notepad so that you can add formatting and graphics. To do this, right-click the document icon you want to open, point to Open With, and then click the application you want to use to open the document, or click Choose Program to access more program options. Once you open a text file using WordPad, this option is automatically added to the Open With menu. | |