Problems accessing data on external storage from some applications

[Tootler]

I have just installed ubuntu. I have my data on another partition of the hard drive formatted as fat32 so the data can be shared with windows.

In some applications, the file/open dialog box shows both the home directory and the external devices, including the data partition, cdrom drive & usb sticks (if I have one plugged in). In other applications - most notably Open Office - file/open only shows the home directory and I cannot seem to find any way of getting to the partition with the files I want to open.

How can I access external devices in the latter types of application?

Geoff

By the way, I spent hours hunting round trying to find an answer to this.

[taurus]

Have you mounted that fat32/vfat partition while you're in Ubuntu?

Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

sudo fdisk -l
sudo blkid
cat /etc/fstab
df -h

[Tootler]

Have you mounted that fat32/vfat partition while you're in Ubuntu?

Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

sudo fdisk -l
sudo blkid
cat /etc/fstab
df -h

Yes I had.

I found the files. I was trying to sort another issue and I found that you had to look in /media/partition_name and there they all were.

Thanks for your suggestion anyway.

Geoff