Relative addressing in shortcuts

In a W2K shortcut, the WorkingDirectory property sets or retrieves the default working directory for the application pointed to by the shortcut. All relative paths specified in file operations are taken as being relative to the working directory.Hope this helps!

Ron

It is not certain that you are missing something. Experience has taught me that I should do it the MS way or really have to beat the system.
Why do you want to make the shortcuts relative? It is shorter to type the text or what else do you want to do later?
Shortcuts happen to be different under Windows compared to good old DOS.
Open the Explorer [or My Computer]. Do not use maximized, so you would see part of the desktop. Drag the file for which you want a shortcut with the right mouse button to the desktop, or a directory placed on the desktop. When releasing the right button, choose create shortcut. That is it, notwithstanding all those tales about those complicated shortcuts.
Want to change the name? Again right click and rename.The old shortcut keys CTRL HOME [for going to the start of the title] and CTRL DEL [for deleting a whole word] and END or CTRL END are still handy in order to amend the text.
If you have 300 shortcuts, you may wish to group these in directories on your desktop. Realise that the directory with short cuts could be anywhere [even a server] as long as you place a shortcut to the directory on your desktop.
Knowing this you can also make the shortcuts within the explorer [which may be maximized] aslong as you use the right mouse button for dragging and make certain that the correct target directory is selected. The major advantage of right mouse button dragging is tat you always keep the possibility to cancel.
Good luck.

I think that I missunderstood something.
Why you don't select all files from one subdirectory, with mouse right button drag on desktop (or anywhere) release button and chose create shortcuts (x:\MainDirectory\Subdirectory\file).
If you speak abouta share (main directory) search on network neighborhood\computer\share and create shortcut from here (\\ComputerName\ShareName\Subdirectory\file).

For brevity, I may not have explained myself well enough. 1.All shortcuts are listed in on directory, 2.Their names may not reflect the original Filename 3.These files and Shortcuts may be copied to other Computers or CD with different drive and Dirctory structure. 4.The only constants that I can use are the fixed names below "shortcuts" in the following tree:

drive:\main
___|______
| |
Sub1 Sub2
______|_______
| | |
sub3 Shortcuts sub4
______________|_____
| | |
dir1 dir2 dir3 >>>> dir10

Clarification of my earlier answer: The WorkingDirectory property is listed as "Start In" in a W2K shortcut.

See if the following will help. This may allow you to control where the file is ACTUALLY located using the "Start In" field to hold a relative path. Turning off the link resolution should prevent any "Can't find file" messages with the system simply looking in the relative "Start In" path you've set.

Key : HKCU \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Policies \Explorer
Entry : LinkResolveIgnoreLinkInfo
System : 2K
Type : REG_DWORD
Range : 0 or 1
Default : 0
1 : Windows 2000 tries to find the target files for shortcuts when the link is broken. Shortcuts may contain an absolute path to the initial target file and a relative path to the current target file. If the system is unable to find the target file in the current target path (relative), it will look into the initial target path (absolute). If the file was copied onto another computer, the initial target path can lead to a computer on the network, including external resources such as an Internet server.

Hope this helps!

Ron