Navigate save dialog boxes by typing filesystem paths

Apr 11, '03 08:54:00AM

Contributed by: englabenny

I just found out that you can use paths in the Save dialog box to navigate to hidden directories. Say you just want a quick look at something, a PDF, so you want to save it to /tmp. In the Save box, type /tmp as the filename, hit enter (in some cases my Save button even changed to Go), and you are sent to that directory.

You can also write the full path, like /tmp/a.pdf.

This works in open dialogs boxes too, as many might have figured out. The directories saved to are also visible next time you open a save dialog - presumably until you relogin.

[robg adds: I had been aware that in Open dialog boxes you could type in a path, as the input box there is labeled "Go:". But in Save dialogs, the input box is simply "Save As" and you would think it only accepts a filename ... but as the hint points out, you can actually type a path there as well! I tested this in a few Cocoa and Carbon apps, and it seems to work perfectly in all of them. The only mild trick is that you can't really use /Volumes to jump to the top of your hard drive stack (I get a scary warning about "/" not existing and would I like to create it -- I said "no thanks!"). Instead, jump directly to any drive by typing /Name_of_drive. This hint saves a lot of mouse work scrolling around in the save dialog boxes; no more reaching for the mouse to get from my Desktop to my backup drive, now I just have to type a few characters!]

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