SENDTO

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SEND TO FOLDER

SendTo folder: When you right click a file you get the option of "send to" in the context menu. This is a good feature. You can send a file to a specific program or application. You may find that after adding new programs to your computer that your SendTo options are becoming quite large and cluttered with unwanted items. I hate it when programs add unwanted items in MY computer. But it is quite easy to delete the unneeded items from the context menu.

USE CAUTION WHEN DELETING SOME ITEMS FROM THE CONTEXT MENU. Some items are part of Windows and not programs. As such it may prove difficult to reinstate them into the context menu. A few examples of sendto items I would not remove are "3 1/2 floppy" or any other "disk drive", "Mail Recipient", "My Documents", "Desktop" or "Compressed folder" if you have Windows ME or newer.

To remove items in the "SendTo" menu. Click Start. Click Run. Type "sendto" without the quotes. Click OK. You are now in the "SendTo" folder. Right click any item you want to remove. Click delete. You can also get to to the folder by navigating to it in Explore. Right click Start then click Explore. But good luck finding it. You'll have to enable "Show Hidden Files and Folders" to find it in explore.

Add Programs to the SendTo Folder: This can be simple or difficult depending on the program you want to add. What you want to do is add a shortcut of the program into the SendTo menu. If you move the program itself into the menu folder then the program may no longer work. If you've moved the program into the folder and later delete it then the program is gone. Setting up a restore point in Windows ME or newer will usually fix any mistakes. I know from first hand experience. So start with an easy and safe one by adding "Paint".

Add Paint to the SendTo folder: First you need to locate the "Paint" program. One way is to left click Start. Go to Programs, Accessories. Locate and right click Paint. Click Properties. Click Find Target. MSPAINT should be highlited in this folder.

Another way to get to the "Paint" program is to right click Start. Click Explore. Navigate to "Program Files" in the left pane. (not "start menu programs" or "downloaded programs"). Click the + sign to open the tree in the left side. Click Accessories. On the right side you should see "Paint".

Either way you get to the "Paint" program leave the window open. Of course there are other ways to get to get to here but I don't want to confuse you too much.

Next click Start. Click Run. Type "sendto" without the quotes. Click OK. You should now have two windows open.

Left click Paint in the first window and while holding down the button use your mouse to drag it to the second window. Or drag it to the window on your task bar at the bottom of your screen and wait for the second window to open. Then drag it to the second window. Remember to keep pressing down on your mouse button while you do this.

You have now created a shortcut to Paint in the SendTo folder. Your done. Check it out. Right click any picture file on your computer then choose "send to Paint".

WARNING!!! The drag and drop method of adding to the SendTo folder will sometimes move the program there instead of creating a shortcut to the program. For instance, Microsoft Word Pad will create a shortcut using this method which is what you want. Note Pad will move the program itself which is not what you want to do.

To see if you correctly created a shortcut in the SendTo folder right click the file you created. Click Properties. If there is a tab at the top named "shortcut" you did it right. If not drag it back to the original location. Then create a shortcut in the original window and drag the shortcut to the SendTo folder. To create the shortcut in the original window right click the program file then click create shortcut.

Enough of the warnings. Let's try something a little more complex.

Add Paperport-Scansoft to the SendTo folder. Paperport is a common scanning, file and picture managing, and photo editing program. Since it is a multi-functional program you can add different portions of it to the SendTo folder.

Let's assume you want to set up a SendTo command to send pictures directly to the Paperport clipboard. It's easy but this time we will do it another way.

Right click start. Click Explore. In the left pane at the top click the + sign next to LOCAL DISK (C:) In the right hand side look for a folder named ScanSoft Documents. Right click it then click Create Shortcut. Next open the SendTo folder (see above). Drag the ScanSoft Documents shortcut into the send to folder. Now when you use the send to command it will put the picture in the main clipboard of Paperport.

Since the ScanSoft clipboard contains subfolders as well you can set up a SendTo command for them also. In Explore double click ScanSoft Documents in the right side pane and create a shortcut to one of the subfolders. Then drag this shortcut into the sendto folder.

But remember the SendTo menu can get large in no time if you add too many. So I just use the main clipboard for this then organize my files later into the subfolders.

So the point is different programs will have to be set up as to their applications. And a little searching and experimenting may be needed. As well as patience and caution.
And that's what makes it fun.