I went to ubuntuguide.org and didn't find what I was looking for.

I am currently running SUSE 10.0, and want to switch to Ubuntu.

Is there a way to keep my personal files that I have located in the /home directory when I install Ubuntu?

The expert installation mode in Ubuntu didn't have that option.

The are two things at issue here--keeping a separate partition from the installation and keeping personal files from /home

Generally, having a separate /home partition is a good idea, as you can reinstall a Linux distro as many times as you want. However, I would not recommend using the same /home folder/partition for two different distros. This doesn't mean you can't create a separate data partition for your personal files--this is what I do instead of having a separate /home partition.

I have instructions for how to create a separate /home partition, but you can skip all that stuff about copying /home--just copy your essential files. Then, when you install Ubuntu choose manually edit the partition table. Do not do an expert install. Just do a regular install.

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/separatehome.html

I have a partition formatted as Fat32 (so that I can access my files from linux OR windoze)

When I install different distro's (which I do quite often) I can always access my fat32 partition.

Of course, some distros will not automaticly mount the partition.

You will have to add it to your 'fstab'