How do I avoid saving Excel files in the temp directory in Windows XP?

Question

How do I make sure that I don't save files (Excel in this case) in C:\Documents and Settings\u.sername\Local Settings\Temp? (Apart from having my brain in gear!)

It's kind of disconcerting to save a file, and then not be able to find it in your usual location, nor have it listed amongst My Recent Documents or in the list of recent documents within Excel.

Answer 1

Does this happen when you open an Excel file from an Internet link or email attachment?

My wife has done this a few times where she opens an attachment, makes changes, then can't find the files in her My Documents, so she re-opens the attachment, which saves over the file in the Temp folder. Hours of work lost.

My recommendation is to always use File -> "Save As...". On the left side, make sure to select My Documents.

If you do end up saving a file in the Temp folder, use the Recent list in Excel (in the File menu) to open the last used file and do Save As... to re-save it.

I suppose the only real way around this would be to create an Excel plugin that would check each save operation to see if "Temp" is in the path and prompt to confirm. Actually, that sounds like a great idea...