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Tidy Up Your Files and Folders

Time to complete: 5 minutes to set up

Required product: Microsoft Windows XP, $200, www.microsoft.com

It's easy to just let Windows save every file where it wants to--in My Documents--but you can end up with a cluttered, unwieldy folder, and My Documents can be time-consuming to navigate to. You may instead want to store your files on another, larger hard drive, copy them to another location, or compress them in a jiffy. A couple of tricks will let you quickly and easily set up your filing system your way and keep it organized.

1. To change the location of My Documents, choose Start, right-click My Documents, and select Properties.
2. Click Move, and browse to the new location you want for My Documents. Click Make New Folder if necessary (the folder will still appear as My Documents in the Start menu and Explorer). Click OK.
3. Make the Send To menu your friend by putting the programs and folders you use most often into it: First, navigate to the Send To folder itself. Each user account has its own folder at n:\Documents and Settings\your_name\SendTo, where n: is the drive Windows is installed on and your_name is the log-on name of the user. Use My Computer or Explorer to open this folder.
4. Create a shortcut to the folder you want to send documents to: Choose File, New, Shortcut (or right-click an open area of the Explorer window and choose New, Shortcut), and then browse to the program or folder you would like to add to the Send To menu. This works for applications as well: If you always open text documents in WordPad, for example, put a shortcut to WordPad in your Send To folder. Or make a shortcut to a network drive so that you can back up files and folders with two clicks.
5. Use the Send To command to compress large files (such as photos or audio or video clips) for storage or e-mailing. In Explorer or any File, Open dialog box (including when you choose Insert, File in Outlook), right-click the giant file (or group of files), and then choose Send To, Compressed (zipped) Folder. Note: If saving disk space is your main concern, you should delete the original file once the compression process has completed.

Scott Spanbauer

Save Paper by Combining Print Jobs

Time to complete: 5 minutes to install, less than 5 minutes to set up

Required product: FinePrint Software FinePrint 5, $50, www.fineprint.com

Want to do something nice for the environment and your office-supplies budget? FinePrint lets you shrink multiple pages, make double-sided prints, and even combine print jobs. Here's how to merge two documents into one printout.

1. Install FinePrint, then set it as the default printer in the Settings, Printers menu so it will open whenever you print. To do so, right-click FinePrint and choose Select as Default Printer.
2. For your first document, choose File, Print. When the FinePrint dialog box appears, click the Preview tab. Click the Layout subtab to choose how many pages to print on one sheet and to preview your job.
3. Don't click the Print button or close the dialog box. Return to the application you were using and open the second document. Invoke the Print command again to add this document to FinePrint's preview window.
4. Right-click the preview window to inspect your print job or to remove or insert pages. Choose your printer from the drop-down menu, and click Print & Close or Print to finish.

Rebecca Freed