The Send To feature in Windows is extremely useful, yet many people don't know what it is or how to use it. Simply put, the Send To menu allows you to automate the moving of a file to a specific location. Rather than dragging your file over to your A: drive, or to "My Documents", you just right-click on the file and choose Send To | A: drive; or Send To | My Documents.

(This tutorial assumes you are using Windows 98, but the Send To feature is also available in Windows 95, NT, 2000, and XP)

With this guide, you'll learn:

• How to use "Send To" to move a file
• How to use "Send To" to launch a program
• How to customize Send To for your needs

The Magic Portal

Think of Send To as a magic portal -- by simply right-clicking on the file you want to move, and then choosing a Send To destination, your file gets transported to that destination. Let's try a test case:

1. Right-click on your Windows desktop.
2. Choose New from the menu
3. Choose Text Document
4. A new text file will appear on your desktop. Press Enter to accept the default file name

Now let's say that we want to move this file over to the "My Documents" folder...

1. Right-click on the text file
2. Choose Send To
3. Choose My Documents

Poof! The text file will disappear from your desktop, and reappear in your My Documents folder. You can also try sending the file to your floppy disk drive (A: drive). However, instead of moving the file to your A: drive, it copies the file to A:.

1. Right-click on the text file
2. Choose Send To
3. Choose 3 1/2 Floppy (A)

Creating a Shortcut with Send To

You can also quickly create shortcuts to the document on your desktop. That way, if you have a file buried deep in My Documents that you use frequently, you can quickly access it. Do you have a document that you constantly use and update? I do -- it's called my resume! Just kidding (mostly). Let's use the text file we created earlier as our test case.

1. Open the My Documents folder
2. Right-click on the text file
3. Choose Send To
4. Choose Desktop (shortcut)

Now you will have a shortcut on your Desktop that points to the text file in My Documents!

Customize Send To Destinations

OK, let's say you have a disk drive (like a Zip drive) or a folder (like My Downloads) that you want to access with the Send To feature. All you have to do is to create a shortcut to your drive or folder in a specific place on your hard drive. Let's try it, using a "My Downloads" folder as an example. Here's how:

1. Right-click on your Windows desktop.
2. Choose New from the menu
3. Choose Folder
4. A new folder will appear on your desktop. Type My Downloads and press Enter to accept the name

OK, we can now use this folder as a repository for all your downloads. Next, let's make this accessible from your Send To menu.

1. Right-click on the My Downloads folder
2. Choose Copy from the menu (this takes a snapshot of the item that you want to add to your Send To menu)
3. Open My Computer
4. Double-click on your C: drive
5. Double-click on the Windows folder
6. Double-click on the SendTo folder (this is where the Send To menu items are stored). Under Windows XP, this folder can be found under C:/Documents and Settings/your username/SendTo/
7. Right-click on an empty space in the folder, and choose
   Paste Shortcut from the menu.

From now on, when you right-click on a file and choose Send To, your My Downloads folder will appear as a menu choice!

Launch a Program with Send To

In my view, this is the most useful part about Send To. I use a lot of text files in my job, and sometimes I want to use Notepad, other times I want to use WordPad, and other times I want to use my word-processing application (OpenOffice). By creating shortcuts to each of these applications in my SendTo folder, I can choose which program to open up with each file -- on the fly!

Let's practice with WordPad:

1. Click on the Start button
2. Choose Programs
3. Choose Accessories
4. Right-click on WordPad
5. Choose Copy from the menu (this takes a snapshot of WordPad so you can add it to your Send To menu)
6. Open My Computer
7. Double-click on your C: drive
8. Double-click on the Windows folder
9. Double-click on the SendTo folder (this is where the Send To menu items are stored)
10. Right-click on an empty space in the folder, and choose
    Paste Shortcut from the menu.

From now on, whenever you have a file that you want to specifically open with WordPad, you can just right-click on the file and "send it to" WordPad. You can create shortcuts to any of your applications in the SendTo folder.

Play around with it, and you may find all kinds of uses for this cool feature!