Question
Not even sure how to ask this question. It' sounds beyond dumb and I've never seen this before......
I was working in Word and went to save a file. When the "save as" window opened, the left side folder directory was totally gone – total white space. I have a ton of files that are organized by folders and sub-folders and sub-sub-folders. I usually just select the folder where the new file needs to go, save it there and I'm done. Without the left hand directory to use, I'm totally lost. The file can be saved, but I have to go to the address bar and manually type in the full address to save the file. That's impossible because of so many named sub folders on my system. Without the left hand folder directory, I'll never find them. At first I thought maybe it was a Word issue, but I can't see any folders if I try to save in Power Point or Excel too. There is a "Browse Folders" and "Hide Folders" button on the bottom left side of the screen. I tried both of those, but nothing changed on screen. The "Organize" button was also basically greyed out except for the Layout button, which did nothing,
Oddly, if I open File Explorer, all the folders show-up to view them. I checked settings and none of the folders are hidden.
Any suggestions, please? I'm hoping I just did something stupid and there's a quick fix. I'm dead in the water and afraid to do anything that might screw up Explorer and the directories that I can at least find and read for now.
Answer
Oh my Gosh, so easy to fix!!! I have been experiencing this and spending hours and hours trying to fix. Here is a video that shows how to fix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz9wNHfELZM
Basically, we somehow reduced the reading pane where the folders/files are listed. Just hover below the line between "new folder" and "file name", click and drag to enlarge that reading pane and your files show!! Why couldn't someone say to just do this instead of all the command prompts and etc!!