My Pictures folder

Topic

New Reply

Is there a way to stop Office 2000 creating a My Pictures folder? I have a different folder for my clipart and I have changed the default location for this in Word, Powerpoint & Publisher and deleted the My Pictures folder. Office keeps on re-creating this folder and resetting the path to it. Thanks for any assistance.

Reply | Quote

Replies

Are SURE that Office is creating this folder.
What program are you using to view and or edit photo’s?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

Thanks Dave,

This is happening on a small network of computers at a school. There is no photo editing software installed and all the images are simply clipart stored in a separate folder on the hard drive. There is very little software at all, apart from Office.

The children use the ‘insert/picture/from file’ menu command to add clipart to their work. But instead of defaulting to the clipart folder it directs to a newly created My Pictures folder (which is inside the My Documents folder).

I have reset the default location on all computers several times – but they all keep reverting to this behaviour. Thanks for your help.

Reply | Quote

Check the location of clipart defualt folder in the Tools, option, and on the File location Tab. See if the ‘My Pictures’ has been set to be the default. If it is then this is your problem.
Just change the file location to agree with your clipart folder.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

Thanks, Dave, but I have done that several times (and remembered to click the default button) but it keeps on changing it back to My Pictures. Even when I delete the My Pictures folder, Office recreates this folder and resets back to it!

Reply | Quote

Where do you get the “(and remembered to click the default button)” to select?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

Sorry! I’m not at the Office 2000 computers at the moment. Got confused with resetting other options such as default font, etc. You’re correct there is no default button!!!

Reply | Quote

These computers are on a network, are there login profiles for each user?

Check and make sure that you do NOT have more than one copy of Normal.dot on each computer.
On one of these computers do the following.
Delete ALL copies of Normal.dot and then start up Word. Check the file locations, if NOT where they belong change them. Exit Word, then restart up Word. Check the file locations, are they is correct?
Exit Word, restart yhe computer and then go into Word and check the files location, are still correct ?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

There are no individual profiles, however I will check for several copies of normal.dot. However this problem occurs in Powerpoint and Publisher as well – do you know what their default templates are?

It’s school holidays here at the moment, until 30th January, so I can’t access the computers until then.

Reply | Quote

I will have THINK about that one. Maybe someoneelse will come with that answer before I do.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

Thanks for you help, Dave.

Reply | Quote

Your welcome

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

I don’t have an answer for you (although I will look), but I can tell you that I have a similar problem. It’s my conclusion that either Windows or Office creates this.

I have Windows 98SE & Office 2000 Professional. I’m on a standalone machine with no profiles or logon. I know I only have 1 normal.dot & I have it set to prompt me before it changes.

Both My Music & My Pictures keeps getting recreated. I’ve both deleted & renamed them (I don’t mind a folder for pictures & music, I just don’t like the possessive pronoun.) I’ll try to see if I can figure out exactly what action causes them.

By the way, I don’t think the “My Pictures” folder should affect the clipart. I never set a default for clipart under Tools/Options/File Locations & have no trouble inserting clipart.

On my machine they are found at

“C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeClipartphotohm

& also

“C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedClipartcagcat50

I’m wondering if the students are messing with programs, however.

Reply | Quote

Thanks for your ideas, Phil.

The computers on the school network are all running Win98SE. I suspect that it is NOT Win98SE that is creating these folders because I have used Office 97 on a Win98 machine and I DIDN’T get this behaviour. Similarly I also have Office 2000 on an NT4 machine and I DO get this folder created.

Also, I’m pretty sure that it isn’t the kids fiddling with the computers – they are always very closely supervised and are only 10 & 11 yr olds. They do not have any unsupervised time using Office or Win Explorer, etc. I’ve had some far more inventive customisation from them than merely re-creating an empty folder all the time! I think that they would tire of doing this pretty quickly.

I know the My Pictures folder doesn’t affect any clipart anywhere on the computer. I’m just frustrated that the folder keeps getting re-created and that the Office programs then direct themselves back to that path for the Insert/Picture/From File command – even after I set the location I want in Tools/Options, etc.

Reply | Quote

I do not remember our home machine (W95, Off97 Std.) having a My Pictures folder until we installed FrontPage, the only “2000” series MS program on the machine (um, not counting FrontPage Express).

So I suspect MS Office 2000 installations create this folder. I gave up trying to remove it, and moved everything in my former “Graphics” folder to “My Pictures”.

Reply | Quote

No way to change the name (yet). It appears to be a default folder in Windows 2000; like “My Documents”. Here is a quote from the Windows 2000 Professional Product Facts:
“My Pictures

Within the My Documents folder is a folder, My Pictures, that makes working with images easier. Using My Pictures, the user can view and work with image files without having to open an image-editing application. For example, the Image Preview feature displays a full-resolution representation of the image. The user can view the image either as a full-screen window or scaled to actual size, and they can also zoom in and out to see details. If the picture or image is stored on a drive that uses the NTFS file system, the user can also enter text descriptions of picture attributes, such as title, subject description, or category.”

Reply | Quote

You may be right, but I haven’t given up hope finding a way to rename it. You CAN rename the My Documents folder. I renamed it to Data a long time ago, with no problems. I find Microsoft’s paternalistic possessive pronoun (My Computer, My Documents–as if I need to remind My Self who owns My Property), along with it’s overuse of the word “normal” somewhat irritating. Oh well.

Reply | Quote

Try:
If the folder doesn’t exist, create it
Regedit:
HYEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerUser Shell Folders and rename the value of My Pictures to the folder you want.
At least, from Word, you won’t default to My Pictures for inserting a picture.

(Likewise: I refuse to have My Anything on any PC here)

Reply | Quote

I agree! I also don’t like the use of Me or My in VBA

Reply | Quote

Well, Me is a bit cute but makes a sort of sense, since it refers to the current class object. However, there’s no excuse for My Whatever.

Reply | Quote

I never saw the My Pictures folder until I installed Win 98SE. I’ve not updated any of my software other than Windows, with the latest puty I built and I run Office Pro 97. However, I do have a My Music folder that contains copies of a couple of CDs that I copied to my hard disk using Real Jukebox. I think My Pictures was installed by Win 98SE. But Office 2000 might do it as well.

Cheers, Geoff

Reply | Quote

I am running Windows98 FE, My Pictures appeared when I installed Office 2000 with MS PhotoDraw. I think on my wife’s old machine which was running Office 2000 but did NOT install PhotoDraw and she did NOT have the My Pictures folder. Now on her new machine running Windows Me (OEM version) the folder is there. Go figure.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

I didn’t have “My Pictures” until the time I installed IE 5.5 on my computer at work. I’ve been running O2K since June 2000.

Reply | Quote

I agree, Phil, I know that “my” documents are actually mine! I renamed all the My Documents folders on the school computers to Data straight away. As you say, it was easy to do this, but I still get the My Pictures folder inside the Data folder!

Thanks to Doug & Leif also for your help.

Reply | Quote

I leave My Documents as is. I also have a ‘_Data_ folder on another dirve. This is my default that I seup all of my programs to save and/or go to. This way all of the programs that feel that they have to use it and customize in any manner they may. True sometimes I must work my way to this folder ‘_Data’, but it works. I do NOT worry about a lot of these little things and don’t let them get to me.

I have seen some GateWay machines where GateWay has move the My Documents under the ‘Windows’ folder, real dumb in MY book.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

Hi Cheryl:
Well, if you’re brave, here’s a solution (maybe). I did this on my own, so we’ll see if it works.

1. Back up your registry & make sure you have a startup disk. Always do that before making registry changes.
2. Open regedit (Start/Run/regedit)
3. Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerShell Folders

There you should find a Value & Data value for My Pictures

4. Modify the data value (the one on the right) to Pictures & click OK.

5. Check a similar key at

HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerShell Folders

On my machine, they mirror each other because I have no profiles set on my standalone machine.

6. Cross your fingers.

I can’t see that this will harm anything in the registry or booting. Of course, I don’t know if some program will put it back (some self repair feature).

Hope this helps.

Reply | Quote

it’s windows creating the folder. clipart shouldn’t be in the pictures folder, only images you create or save.

Reply | Quote

Cheryl:

In Word 2000, I was able to change the default location for Clipart pictures by doing the following: Tools | Options | File Locations tab. Then select “clipart pictures” and click on modify. Change the path to the desired folder and click OK. After doing this, clicking on Insert | Picture | From File points to the folder selected.

This setting was retained after closing and reopening Word and also after rebooting.

HTH.

Reply | Quote

If you haven’t figure out, here’s something you could try. Move My Documents, including My Pictures to a new location then rename it. Then you will have to edit the registry, see Phil Rabichow instruction.

I did this on my NT and it worked. I hope it helps.

BerniceM

Reply | Quote