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Default Folder - Add power to open/save dialogs Pick of the Week
DefaultFolder iconThe macosxhints Rating:
8 of 10
[0 to 10 lights; 10 = perfect!]
The first Pick of the Week for 2003 is an oldie but goodie. If you were an OS 9 user, you more than likely have heard of (and/or used) Default Folder before. Default Folder enhances open and save dialogs in a number of ways. When enabled, you'll see a small floating vertical line of icons attached to your open and save dialog boxes. Using these icons, you can jump to your Favorites folder, your recently used items folder, any open Finder window, or any drive or partition on your machine. You can also rename selections, and assign a folder as a "default folder" for the chosen application.

But that's just the beginning of its power. When you open the Default Folder preference panel, you can assign folders to your list of favorites and give them a shortcut key. Have a folder called Images that you always jump to? Instead of navigating via the column-view window, just add it to your Favorites list and assign it the Control-I hot key. Now any time you need to get to Images in an open or save dialog box, just hit Control-I. You can have multiple sets of default and favorite folders, and you can even tell Default Folder to highlight folders in the Finder as you mouse over them, and display their contents in the dialog when you click on them.

There are a number of additional features, and it's well worth a download to give Default Folder X a run-through. As with most powerful tools, you may spend a few minutes learning the interface, but once you do, you'll probably wonder how you got along without it in the past.
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  You rated: 1 / 5 (8 votes cast)
 
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Default Folder - Add power to open/save dialogs | 9 comments | Create New Account
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Hot-keys not dependable
Authored by: bluehz on Jan 05, '03 07:16:38AM

I have used DefaultFolder since it was first released several years ago. I consider it one of my top 5 essential addons for any system.

One comment I would make about the OS X version though is that the "hot-keys for favorites" feature only works intermittently. At least for me. Sometimes the hotkeys take me to the specified dir and sometimes they do nothing at all. Not sure what that is caused by and I keep hoping the next version of DF will have the problem corrected.



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Another feature
Authored by: Auricchio on Jan 05, '03 12:20:24PM

I've used DF on MacOS7-9, and have been using it on X since it came out.

One feature took a while to understand.

While a file dialog is open, if you move the mouse over a Finder window, that window turns pale gray. If you click there, DF snaps to that directory.

Say I have a Finder window open to ~/Documents/misc. I do an open while in some application; DF presents a file dialog. I move the mouse over the Finder window, click, and DF snaps to ~/Documents/misc.

The gray-flash thing was puzzling till I figured out the mouse-click business.



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safe?
Authored by: santa on Jan 05, '03 02:50:53PM

I am a paid default folder...non...user. I have been fearful of adding hacks to OSX that I don't understand and which might cause a problem. I don't recall the warning they added with regard to causing problems but at some point I decided it was probably safer to not play with it any longer since I was unsure of how to fully delete it or if it would cause a problem. Any thoughts on that issue?



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safe?
Authored by: swilcox on Jan 05, '03 06:58:08PM

At one point, DF caused some Print Center problems. However, the developer is one of the best in the business, in my opinion. He responded to my direct support questions and quickly fixed the problem. I agree with this rating: Default Folder is a "must have" on my system.



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but what hapened to
Authored by: cmac on Jan 06, '03 03:49:45AM

being able to replace a file name when saving?!? In the pre X versions when in a save dialog box you could option ( I think it was option) click while over an excisting file name and it would rename the file your saving. Great for over-riding excisting files and keeping a squence going.



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but what hapened to
Authored by: bluehz on Jan 06, '03 07:37:43AM

I really miss that feature also!



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Default Folder X? NOT WORTHY
Authored by: a little peaved! on Jan 08, '03 12:09:50PM

It's time to stop praising mediocre and inferior Macintosh software.

Does anyone remember Now Utilities?

It was great software that provided an entire suite of utilities. The Now Menus portion always provided far, far more functionality than Default Folder ever did. Default Folder was always greatly inferior in capabilities.

Unfortunately, Now Utilities went away. It was great on Mac OS 8, and became unreliable on OS 9. The reason for lack of support? The programmers behind Now Software were raided via company acquisition, and the software was laid to rest. Although PowerOn Software later regained the software, it DOES NOT have the same programmers behind their products.


Default Folder is a very weak subset of the functionality that the old Now Utilities suite provided. In fact, it was a very weak subset of the subset of Now Utilities that was called Now Menus.

Default Folder has always been overrated, because it started life as a cheap alternative for those folks that thought $50 or whatever was too much money to pay for Now Utilities.


Default Folder X 1.64 also has these bugs that I experienced:

1. On Mac OS X 10.1.5, "recent folders" were never remembered correctly. After just saving to a folder, the folder would most likely NOT be included as a recent folder. Remembering recent folders was very sporadic, at best. Perhaps this was a Mac OS X issue instead of Default Folder X bug.

2. On Mac OS X 10.2.3, rebounding does not work reliably. On occasion, it occurs properly. Almost all of the time, saving defaults to the top location on my computer.

3. Despite the setting to remember 50 items, far fewer is the maximum.

4. It is not possible to organize the menu of recent items. Now Menus allowed sorting by chronological or alphabetical order. A list of many items is a pain to navigate when there is no reliable ordering. Alphabetical is most desired.


My apologies if any of the above problems are due to user error or causes outside of the realm of Default Folder X.

Nevertheless, the weak, limited feature set is a poor, poor substitute for times when far better software was readily available for the Macintosh.

Now, due to lack of competition, Default Folder X costs as much as Now Utilities used to be available for during promotional pricing and special offers.

This situation is a sorry state for Macintosh computing.

It is very unwise, in my opinion, to praise, promote and support subpar solutions for our favorite platform.

The demise of Now Utilities and the ascendance of Default Folder X is a good illustration of the kind of mediocrity that Macintosh users are now accepting.




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Default Folder X? NOT WORTHY
Authored by: a little peaved! on Jan 08, '03 01:17:18PM

another bug:

When saving, navigating by clicking on a recent folder in Default Folder's menu does not work!

It takes TWO attempts before it actually does work.



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Default Folder X? NOT WORTHY
Authored by: jmignault on Jan 10, '03 01:53:12PM
Default Folder is a very weak subset of the functionality that the old Now Utilities suite provided. In fact, it was a very weak subset of the subset of Now Utilities that was called Now Menus.

Actually, this was even pre-Now Utilities. This originally came from a utility called Super Boomerang which Now bought and integrated into Now Utilities, which in its day was a great package. As I was reading the Default Folder review, I was thinking "This sounds an awful LOT like Super Boomerang." Boomerang first appeared in the System 7 days as I recall and regularly appeared on "top utilities" lists as indispensable. And it was.

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