A system, method, and program of the invention enables a software programming tool to automatically populate a specified directory, such as a working directory of a specified application, with files matching a certain file type, e.g., *.gif, *.jpeg, or matching a general file description, e.g., pictures, images, spreadsheets, text. The files may reside within any directory accessible to the computer system running the specified application. When running the specified application, a user has access to all of the files matching the specified type or description from the one directory. The functionality of the tool is invoked each time the application is launched, without further user interaction, so that any newly created files matching the file type or general description are automatically copied or moved to the specified one directory.