Section 13.3. The Shared Documents Folder

13.3. The Shared Documents Folder

In the following pages, you'll learn how to share certain foldershow to make them public, designating them as available to every PC on the network.

But if you live in a household full of technophobes, you might never need to bother with that business. You're already blessed with a special folder that's ready for this kind of sharing: the Shared Documents folder. It makes a perfect family (or small office) bulletin board.

To have a look at the Shared Documents folder on your own PC, just choose Start My Computer. There it is, sitting among the other icons in the Files on This Computer section (Figure 13-5).

To peek into the Shared Documents folders on other people's computers, putting your network to productive use for the first time, choose Start My Network Places. (If your Start menu doesnt list My Network Places, take a moment to put it there yourself. Right-click the Start button; from the shortcut menu, choose Properties. Click the Customize button, and then click the Advanced tab. In the scrolling list, turn on "My Network Places." Finally, click OK twice.)

---

Tip: Technically, and maybe confusingly, the Shared Documents folder on your own PC actually represents the contents of the Local Disk (C:) Documents and Settings All Users Shared Documents folder.

---

Bottom: To access the Shared Documents folders on other computers on your network, simply choose Start My Network Places. (They show up named "Documents when viewed across the network.

As shown in Figure 13-5 at bottom, you've just opened up a window that contains one icon for every shared folder on the networkincluding the Shared Documents folder on each computer.

At this point, you might consider dragging the Documents folders to your desktop for easier access, for example, where they become something like folder shortcuts. While you're at it, consider renaming them so you know which computers they came from. Or drag these icons directly into your Start menu or onto your Quick Launch toolbar.

In any case, you can open and work with whatever you find inside just as though they were your own documents. The difference, of course, is that these are actually public documents sitting on other people's computers.

---

Tip: If you see an error message claiming that the file is in use by "another user ," then, sure enough, somebody else on the network is probably working on that same document at this very moment. You'll have to wait until that person closes the document before it's your turn.

---