Assigning Default File Locations in Office 2010

[BobH]

As part of my ongoing system recovery and setup, I have decided that all data must reside in a partition (or partitions) apart from the OS and program files. With the exception of iTunes (thus far) I have found the means to set the path that I would like for each program to use as a default. The questions is, "Do I have to do this in each of the Office programs or is there some way to do it globally?"

[StuartR]

I found the easiest thing to do on my Windows 7 system was to add the new location to the documents library, and make it the default save location.

[BobH]

I found the easiest thing to do on my Windows 7 system was to add the new location to the documents library, and make it the default save location.

Thank you for the quick response, Stuart!

As you know, "Once bitten is twice shy." I'm trying to be very deliberate about this process to ensure that I understand what I'm doing. Lacking sufficient experience with and knowledge of Win 7, I'm reluctant to just dive in and trust to luck.

Here is a screenshot of my Win 7 file system with areas highlighted that concern me:

StuartR.jpg

Looking at the top address bar area, there is no indication of partition ID when I select "Documents" in the left-hand panel. From my experience I believe that these folders under "Libraries" (circled) are written to partition C.

At the bottom you see highlighted the 2 partitions that I want to use for various types of data. Perhaps I'm being too anal about knowing the precise locations of the files, but my backups are set up by partition ID. I intend for C to have only the OS and program files. Partition D is the old XP system that I have never deleted but do not use, kept because data a programs are all contained on that drive. It is a snapshot of what I had on the old machine before the mobo melted.
Partitions E and F are on an entirely separate (but internal) HDD.

When I have everything set up and I understand where things are, my backups will go to external HDDs. For the moment, I'm backing up on partition E only and I have not yet placed any data files there, though I intend to do so ultimately.

Perhaps my confusion lies in not knowing how Win 7 treats libraries as shown in the circled area?????

[HansV]

When you install Office from scratch, the default open/save location for all its components is My Documents under the Documents library.
If you want a different location, you have to set it for each Office application separately. If you wish, you can set a different location for each of them (I do - I have a Word folder, an Excel folder, etc., with subfolders as needed).

The physical location of folders under Libraries can be anywhere. Libraries is a gathering place for frequently used folders, wherever they are stored. Windows creates four libraries by default: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos, but you can add your own libraries: when you're in Libraries, click the New Library button in the toolbar, and specify the name for your custom Library.
You can add arbitrary folders to a built-in or custom library: select a folder in the left-hand pane of Windows Explorer, then click Include in Library on the toolbar. You can specify to which library you want to add the folder.

[StuartR]

On this laptop that I am typing on now, I have a data partition (D:) and an OS and applications partition (C:)

The documents library only has one entry a folder in D:\
I did this by right clicking on the library, adding D:\Foldername, making it the default, then removing the default Windows location
I have not changed the default save location in any Office programs, but they all save things to D:\Foldername

[HansV]

Thanks, Stuart. I did not know that.

[BobH]

Indeed, Thank You Stuart!

It took me a minute or 2 to figure out that I couldn't edit the Windows 7 Libraries Folder Preferences, but I was able to add the locations on my F partition. I will go back when time permits and ensure that I left nothing in the default libraries and I shall delete those locations from preferences!

Well Done!!