(later...)
I checked out the "
Changing the File Save Location in Office 2007" article, and the topic is right-on, but it doesn't quite arrive at the solution I seek.
The process described in the article above is supposed to establish what default folder opens. But somehow it doesn't seem to always function that way -- I find my Word save-as dialogue box seems to revert to the folder linked to the last-saved (or opened?) file.
What I seek is this: in that same save-as dialogue box there are several icons to the left of the 'Save in' 'File name' and 'Save as type' drop-downs.
One of them, for instance, is 'My Documents.' I'd like to change that icon (which always appears there in the same way) to direct to a folder of my choosing. It does not seem easy to accomplish this!
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BTW, I'm using Word 2002. The instructions in the above-referenced article are for Word 2007, but one can follow them by substituting the first two steps with:
1. Click the Office button [for Word 2002, select ‘tools’ then ‘options’]
2. Select Advanced [for Word 2002, skip this]