Tip To create a shortcut to Shared Documents on your desktop, open My Computer as
described earlier. Then drag the Shared Documents icon out to the desktop and
drop it there. More on creating shortcuts in Chapter 4.
The main thing to keep in mind is that shared items don’t appear within your My Documents folder —
even though other people are willing to share. You must specifically go to the Shared Documents folder
to find those shared items.
If you want to share items from your My Documents folder, or any of its subfolders, you must move or
copy those items from their current location to the Shared Documents folder (or one of its
subdocuments). Keep in mind that once you move an item to Shared Documents, it is no longer
available via My Documents. If someone else deletes that shared item, it’s gone for good. If someone
else changes the item, you’re stuck with those changes.
On the other hand, if you copy items to Shared Documents, you retain your own copy in your My
Documents folder. So there’s no loss if someone else deletes it. Likewise, if someone changes the
Shared Documents item, those changes won’t be reflected in the copy that’s in your My Documents
folder. If you prefer the changed copy, and want that one in your My Documents folder, you must copy
the changed version from Shared Documents to My Documents.
Chapter 12 discusses moving and copying files and folders in detail. If you’re just looking to move
something from My Documents to Shared Documents, however, the procedure is simple enough:
1. Open My Documents.
2. Drag the item you want to move from the right pane of the Explorer window to the Shared
Documents option under Other Places in the Explorer bar, and drop it there.