Windows Explorer folder comments

April 12, 2004 1:36 PM

It's possible to add a comments field in Windows Explorer. Office document comments are displayed. Is it possible to add Folder comments? [more inside]

To enable the Comments field, rightclick on the gray bar at the top of the righthand pane, and choose comments.

To add comments to the properties of Office documents - In Word: File, Properties, Summary tab, Comments. The comments then show in the Comments field in Windows Explorer. I haven't seen a way to add comments to a Folder.

Here's what Microsoft has to say
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techenthusiast/tricks/customization/filedetails.asp

Anybody know how to add comments to Folders?

posted by theora55 to computers & internet (3 comments total)

oh, ick. Sorry about hosing the display with a long URL.
posted by theora55 at 1:40 PM on April 12, 2004

Babyurl is your friend. (So is HTML.)

Well, the comments are an Office feature brought forward to the file level, but inside Office through its hacking of the default file dialogs. But the comments are stored inside the documents themselves. The folder format doesn't allow, by default, any kind of comments. (Most folder customization and enhancement -- e.g. thumbnail view, sort by date -- is stored in a hidden desktop.ini file within the folder.) What you're looking for, then, is a third-party utility that will store folder comments in a separate file of its own -- essentially a Shell Extension (google that) of the Norton Commander/XTree variety, or just a simple one like Folder Remarker. BTW, you could annotate folders under Win9x relatively easily, and it seems this may be a feature under Longhorn -- but XP doesn't have it built in to the GUI. There is a way to hack InfoTips in the desktop.ini so that you get a little yellow popup when you hover over a folder icon -- I just tried it, it works -- but you'd think this information would also show in the folder view or even the Details pane when the folder is selected, but of course it doesn't. (And I can never get the infotip to pop up when I want it, either.) Finally, I'm not at all certain (and can't check here) whether these work inside of the Office dialogs, where you seem to want them.
posted by dhartung at 12:27 AM on April 13, 2004

dhartung, thank you for a well-researched answer. You confirmed what I already thought; that it isn't an existing feature of Windows or Office. I'll check out the links.
posted by theora55 at 6:51 PM on April 13, 2004