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Default location for Save As (and Export)


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First: Affinit Designer is really great - thanks to the Affinity team! (Former-time Corel user, then Inkscape, now switched to Affinity due to CMYK and better color management)

 

My request:

I often use Save-As to generate numbered versions of files (as backups, and so that when I discuss them with a client, we can refer to which version we are talking about). In the Save As dialog, it appears that AD defaults to the folder where I last saved anything. This is very tricky when working on files that lie in different folders. To me, the current behaviour is somehow unexpected, and I often accidentially store files in the wrong project's folder.

 

The same happens when exporting, to PDF for instance.

 

I can imagine that people might want to always export all PDFs to a certain folder no matter where the curent file is, so maybe we should also consider this use-case.

 

My suggestion is:

1.) Save As: Default to the folder where the current file lies.

2.) Export (pdf etc, but also for palettes): Default to the folder where I last exported the respective file type when the current document was open.

 

(Maybe its not a good idea to store file paths in documents (like the export paths necessary for 2.). For me, it would be ok if this only works for the last, say, 30 files I worked on, so it could be stored somewhere in the application options storage, not in the document files.)

 

Would this cover all use-cases?

 

Best,

Philipp

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  • 10 months later...
  • 7 months later...

Like p10n said, it was really great, if Affinity go to:

  1. the folder, where the file is saved by clicking on SAVE AS
  2. the last export folder, by export with STRG+ALT+SHIFT+S

And additionaly the possibility to set different save path for the slices and store it in the affinity files.

At this moment, i must navigate through my complete folder structur, when

  • save a file (save or save as)
  • export file
  • export slice

and because the behavior with this 'save as' problem i save many files in the wrong location. After that i begin to search the project files, because the path is not shown under recent files and i can't get the path with the 'save as' option.

 

In the Affinity Photo i missed the option to export multiple layers with the document size. When i creat slices from the layers, they will have the layer size. And if i export the background slice, i must export it for every layer individually. Or i must resize every slice to fit the document size.

 

This is a really bad behavior and cost much time. It is a really good software but this is much better at Adobe Photoshop

 

Some other Things:

Is it possible to copy effects from one layer to another?

Is there an option for layer composition (in german 'Ebenenkomposition' in Photoshop)? 

 

Best,

Timo

 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Yes, more options for the directories (defaults, as common defaults) are needed. 

 

- Save Affinity file to same location as the opened file by default, unless otherwise pointed elsewhere.

- Export file to same location as the opened file, unless pointed elsewhere.

- Remember different Export and Save As -directories per file opened (file from C: doesn't get offered being saved where file from D: got opened)

 

 

It would be nice to be able just unpack package full of image files, open to Affinity Photo and save file and get it saved to "Affinity" directory after pointing in first save time. Then get export as well saved to "Export" directory after pointing the first time there.

 

It would speed up the processing multiple files in same directory (detect the directory path is it same as "Session" or is it as "Project".

 

 

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Yes, this also sounds very reasonable.

I very often need to use the "expose in Finder" menu just to get my working folder so that I can drag it into the file-save dialog. (BTW, most Mac apps show the current folder when you right-click on the icon in the title bar - this would also be a useful thing that Affinity apps are currently lacking).

I think we all agree that the current behavior is only useful in a minority of usecases, and it is at least unusual compared to most other apps. Pity, because I really love the Affinity apps for most other respects.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

+1000 also...

I often work on several projects in parallel, or complex projects (in terms of file organization).

So, several Affinity documents to export, each in a different folder...



It would be nice to distinguish (as paristo said) :

  • Save As = Open Affinity Document Folder
  • Export Slices = an export folder, specific to the current document - and memorized from one time to the next
  • Option: to be able to choose that some slices are in specific folders (ex: pdf in one file, png in another, HighDef in one, LowDef in another ...

This is probably the most frustrating feature of Affinity (maybe the only one ...)

I hope...

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  • 11 months later...
  • 5 months later...
  • 3 months later...

I cant understand why Serif does not fix this. It is so annoying. You always need to extra-check and search for the current folder. One always needs to have a finder window open just to be able to drop the current folder into stupid Affinity.

There is no way to drag it from the window title (as other apps can do), either. There is just the "File --> show in Finder" menu, but the menu item is disabled once any Save dialog is open. Even more stupid. So no easy workaround here, either.

Affinity folks, can you PLEEEEAAASSSEEEEE fix this annoying behaviour?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I second this and I don't understand why there is not even a reply in this thread from affinity, or is there?

we use projects folders and once a file has been saved to a folder the program needs to remember where that is for that file and of course for any save 'this file as' operation. Goes without saying really. Why do I have to find the correct location? The current way means I can have a single one click save to location? Come on...
is that so hard to put into the meta of a file? lastOpenedFromLocation = defaultSaveToLocation and not lastKnownSaveToLocation from any other file ...

please. ... I mean, its Christmas ... hmmm?  
which reminds me:
Merry Christmas Everyone!

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29 minutes ago, roadie said:

I second this and I don't understand why there is not even a reply in this thread from affinity, or is there?

we use projects folders and once a file has been saved to a folder the program needs to remember where that is for that file and of course for any save 'this file as' operation. Goes without saying really. Why do I have to find the correct location? The current way means I can have a single one click save to location? Come on...
is that so hard to put into the meta of a file? lastOpenedFromLocation = defaultSaveToLocation and not lastKnownSaveToLocation from any other file ...

please. ... I mean, its Christmas ... hmmm?  
which reminds me:
Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hi roadie, the staff rarely comment in the feature requests forum, but they do read it and consider all requests.

We all have different workflows, I am a photographer mainly using AP and I prefer the way that the the save as & export works at the moment. I have a folder that contains my original raw images, I then create one for edited versions, I want all of my edited versions to be saved in this folder, currently Photo remembers that folder location. This is a good solution for when I am working in AP

When I am using Publisher I need the file to be saved in the same project folder that it originated from, so the current way it works is annoying in that app.

I appreciate the frustration for many users that need the original file location as the save location for their file, particularly when working in Designer or Publisher.  Maybe a setting in the preferences panel for each app would be the best answer to keep everybody happy. This could be a choice under save location, as:

Always save to original file location

or

Always save to last save location. 

If this was implemented users could select which they need for each app and can change the behaviour at any time they need to.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

 

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43 minutes ago, Murfee said:

users could select which they need for each app and can change the behaviour at any time they need to

On a Mac, get Default Folder. Any such problems solved, with any app that you are using whatsoever.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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@roadie

 

Serif's behavior is tied to their business model "get them in, then lock the door"; we, the existing customers, are trapped lobsters :/. On Serif's business model, existing customers have practically no weight into their prioritization process; we are "locked in" already... 

A good enhancement request, from their standpoint, is a good lobster lure/bait. If an enhancement request is not helping adding (trapping) new customers then it has zero weight on their priority list.

 

Just browse the various topics in this forum, and you'll find more common-sense features, which any other software product have, and which are totally ignored by Serif.

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3 minutes ago, loukash said:

On a Mac, get Default Folder. Any such problems solved, with any app that you are using whatsoever.

Thanks for this, I will give it a try.

I still think that it would be a good feature to be built into the Affinity apps. Not everyone wants to buy a 3rd party app for something that could easily be built into the preferences panel.

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Just now, Murfee said:

it would be a good feature to be built into the Affinity apps

On Mac, this is actually a system function. Open/Save dialogs are provided by the OS. The OS also keeps track of last places and writes the location into the respective application's preferences file (*.plist).

Depending on where you've got your app from, it's either in ~/Library/Preferences/com.seriflabs.affinity[app_name].plist (apps from Serif Store) or ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Data/Library/Preferences/com.seriflabs.affinity[app_name].plist (sandboxed apps from Apple App Store).

The standard XML key to look for is "NSNavLastRootDirectory", that's the one provided by the MacOS.
For some reason though, Affinity apps also store their own last directories keys, named "com.seriflabs.opensave.panel.startupdir", "com.seriflabs.export.panel.startupdir" and possibly more as needed. I don't which preference key has more priority, but I'd assume "com.seriflabs.opensave.panel.startupdir" overrides "NSNavLastRootDirectory".

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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49 minutes ago, loukash said:

On Mac, this is actually a system function. Open/Save dialogs are provided by the OS. The OS also keeps track of last places and writes the location into the respective application's preferences file (*.plist).

ah, so thats how I got 'spoiled' :) 
ok, so they won't change it. I'll get used to it then.

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/24/2019 at 5:13 PM, iBaloo42 said:

Serif's behavior is tied to their business model "get them in, then lock the door"; we, the existing customers, are trapped lobsters :/. On Serif's business model, existing customers have practically no weight into their prioritization process; we are "locked in" already... 

A good enhancement request, from their standpoint, is a good lobster lure/bait. If an enhancement request is not helping adding (trapping) new customers then it has zero weight on their priority list.

Well, it definitely might prevent new customers from joining the wagon. This 'missing feature' and how the company (in this case not) listens to their customers, can prove to be crucial when making a decision or recommendation to go with a product suite or not. Especially, since there seems to be no product-related support besides this forum.

By the way, this is not the only thread that deals with this issue. Someone from serif could at least 'acknowledge' this. It is an issue since 2016 and would not be hard to implement...

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  • 2 weeks later...

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