Comments on: Using Wildcards in Windows ‘Open’ Dialogue Boxes

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 02:40:08 +0000

I have known about this for a while but not some of the specific ways of searching… I use it in Notepad all the time!

By: Terry Porter

Terry Porter — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 13:08:10 +0000

I didn’t know about the semicolon, very helpful. Just yesterday I was looking for a file about a cross reference. Some have the obvious file name, and some have x-ref. This hint would have made it faster for me to find what I needed. Thanks!

By: rickyspears

rickyspears — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 01:59:02 +0000

Michael – Thanks for expanding on this! I was aware of the other shortcuts you mentioned, but rarely seem to need them. When I first sign onto a new system, one of the first things I usually do is set it to show hidden files and to show know file extensions. I just like being able to see everything and I get really frustrated when the OS starts making decisions for me at that level.

By: Michael Randall

Michael Randall — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 23:33:31 +0000

I knew this one, all apart from splitting multiple filters with the semicolon.

You can also enter the name of a folder in the box, and when you hit enter, it will go into that folder, just as if you’d double-clicked it in the window above – utterly useless, *unless* the folder is hidden.

I keep display of hidden files and folders turned off, and hide some folders under My Documents that I just don’t need to see often – using this trick, it’s still fairly easy to save something into a hidden folder, as long as you remember what it’s called.

Oh, and “..” followed by Enter (two full stops) will go up a level, same as the ‘up a folder’ button. Keep hitting Enter then to keep going up.

Tab and Shift-Tab will move you between parts of the box too, so you can use Tab to go from the file list window to the File name box, or Shift-Tab to go from the file list window to the shortcuts on the left – then up/down and Enter to jump to one of the locations.