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Default location for Save As (and Export)


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On 1/28/2020 at 3:50 AM, larsonmars said:

Someone from serif could at least 'acknowledge' this.

Hi @larsonmars, welcome to the forums!

Serif does not normally respond to feature requests.  They read them, but do not usually respond to them.  If they are going to implement this, it will most likely show up in a beta one day, and that is how we will find out about it.

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Thanks for supporting this thread! Yes it does not seem to be given big attention, despite its something that hinders my workflow again and again.

Above, someone said this weird behavior is a feature of OSX. Might be (OSX has other stupid things as well) – but I think the existence of a poor standard behavior should not be an excuse for not improving it. I am sure there is a way to optionally overrule it.

Maybe we should create more buzz on facebook?

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  • 3 weeks later...

This was the first thing I tested when I opened the updated apps today. Unfortunately this has not changed. Incredibly disappointing. The last save as location for that document needs to be saved with the document. One moment I am working on client A and export several things to their folder using their documents. The next moment I am working on client B and there is no reason I should have to find the other folder and waste time switching back and forth. Please fix - I would almost consider this a bug as it should at least default the path to the document location. I love your software but this negative aspect is something I am reminded of almost every day.

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Yeah this has been essentially broken for as long as I've been using Affinity apps. It is appallingly bad.

If you're just someone working on a hobby project at home, you probably wouldn't notice that the behaviour is so absolutely awful.

We work on multiple projects. Sometimes many in a single day. We are organised, so each project has a standard folder structure that we create when we start a new project. It means you can find files on projects you haven't worked on before or haven't worked on for a long time.

Trouble is, that the Affinity apps default to the last location used rather than the location of the current file as highlighted earlier in this thread.

Imagine that we have, for example, a Publisher folder for each project. When saving a new file, it can look for all intents and purposes like you're saving it in the right location because the folder is called 'Publisher'. But it isn't because it is defaulting to a save location of a Publisher folder in another project.

I cannot emphasise how seriously bad this is. So often we have to go searching around various folders to try to locate Affinity files that we thought we'd saved to the right locations but they ended up spuriously in the wrong place.

Please PLEASE fix this. It is another feature request that has been lingering for several years that really shouldn't be that difficult to fix. COME ON SERIF. Please.

@MEB

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 12/24/2019 at 5:30 PM, loukash said:

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".

I am quite sure that this is just the default behavior of the system dialogs. There must be a way for an app to explicitly set a folder for the dialog...

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm loving Affinity Designer, but this issue is seriously bothering me. I'm surprised that over several years this hasn't been addressed and fixed, and I'm getting Adobe flashbacks. I am hopeful, though, as my experience otherwise has been positive. Clearly the software has grown much in the last couple years.

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  • 1 month later...

I agree, this is my biggest outstanding irritation with the Affinity Publisher, which I generally otherwise love.

This may tie into Mac's way of doing things, but it's not how other program work on a Mac – e.g., inDesign, MS-Word, etc. As others have said, this is non-intuitive and I keep accidentally saving files in the wrong location because of this bizarre and unhelpful behaviour. At worst, it's a waste of time (when I take the time to change the saving/exporting location, every time) and at worst it creates errors and lost files.

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  • 2 months later...

To add a bit weight to the conversation:
I'm currently using the testversion of Affinity Photo, I'm trying to integrate it into my dayly workflow because I really like it so far and I was kinda expecting to buy it, but not being able to save in the original folder is REALLY annoying, especially if you work with a lot of images from a lot of different folders like I do. TBH if this issue didn't exist, I'd have bought the software already, but seeing that this thread here is going for years now with no reaction from the developers is... let's say alarming, and I'm not sure if this is the right software for me anymore.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Would soooo much like to see this basic behaviour included:  I.e an option/default for save in current/source folder.

The annoying workaround alternative to browsing (again) to your working folder:

Keep a finder window open with your working folder  click drag > cmd+tab > Affinity  & drop in the save dialogue window to update the save location.

 

Web Dev/Designer mostly in the non-profit sector & maker community - Moved from Adobe in 2020 to all Affinity Publisher, Photo & Designer (+Beta)
On the whole enjoying Affinity SW - Plugging Gaps with:  Inkscape - GIMP - Image Vectorizer - Davinci Resolve 
Hardware:  Intel Mac (Catalina)  /  Sony Cam  /  GWEIKE Laser 

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Yes

2 hours ago, Wood said:

The annoying workaround alternative to browsing (again) to your working folder:

Keep a finder window open with your working folder  click drag > cmd+tab > Affinity  & drop in the save dialogue window to update the save location.

 

Yes. In most other OSX apps, you can get the current working folder by right-click on the icon in the title bar. But in Affinity this does not work either – it would have made the workaround a little bit easier.

Serif seems to be totally deaf regarding the Save-location problem. No idea what their UX guys say (they must be screaming I thought). Seems like we have to keep wasting our time for navigating the same folders again and again, and for searching and cleaning up after saving files into wrong places...

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I agree. When exporting a file, the default option should not be the last exported file location, but the location of the file that you have open and are exporting from. It is really frustrating thinking you have exported a file to have to then track down where it is. This is an obvious and easy software fix. Your software is great, but let down by this simple issue.

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Speculation time... Is the file management code all their own?

I know nothing of their software development setup.

Wood

 

Web Dev/Designer mostly in the non-profit sector & maker community - Moved from Adobe in 2020 to all Affinity Publisher, Photo & Designer (+Beta)
On the whole enjoying Affinity SW - Plugging Gaps with:  Inkscape - GIMP - Image Vectorizer - Davinci Resolve 
Hardware:  Intel Mac (Catalina)  /  Sony Cam  /  GWEIKE Laser 

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On 10/23/2020 at 5:04 PM, Wood said:

Speculation time... Is the file management code all their own?

They seem to not bother, and let OSX do its default handling of the folders. As far as we know, it would not be difficult to override or improve that in an application. (Besides, other vendors seem to manage to do it properly without problems...)

Yes, disappointing. :-(

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well with version 1.8.6  I was hoping to finally see a save / save as default or dialogue to be in line with the behaviour of the default OS savr as Dialoge used by MOST OTHER APPS ON THE PLANET. No such luck..  

Affinity is useful, I like it, but everytime I finish my session (by saving/exporting obvs) it ends with a "I can believe I have to navigate the same folder EVERY F* * * * * * * TIME"

*Sigh*

Web Dev/Designer mostly in the non-profit sector & maker community - Moved from Adobe in 2020 to all Affinity Publisher, Photo & Designer (+Beta)
On the whole enjoying Affinity SW - Plugging Gaps with:  Inkscape - GIMP - Image Vectorizer - Davinci Resolve 
Hardware:  Intel Mac (Catalina)  /  Sony Cam  /  GWEIKE Laser 

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51 minutes ago, prophet said:

No kickbacks to me, but I've been using this handy tool for over a decade. One of my first installs on any new/cleaned machine.

https://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/

Thanks, thats interesting. Does it keep track of/create a default save location for each file? I looked at the website, but I didn't see how it was much different than making favorites in the normal Mac sidebar.

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54 minutes ago, criffel said:

Thanks, thats interesting. Does it keep track of/create a default save location for each file? I looked at the website, but I didn't see how it was much different than making favorites in the normal Mac sidebar.

It remembers last location, you can create favorites per application, you can drill down through folder hierarchy via contextual popup, on the fly edits to files and folders like rename and move to trash, but the biggest feature in my book is the ability to move cursor outside the dialog and "see/select" any open windows that are in the background. 30 day free trial could be worth your time.

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2 hours ago, prophet said:

No kickbacks to me, but I've been using this handy tool for over a decade. One of my first installs on any new/cleaned machine.

https://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/

Thanks for that, but am I right in my thinking that if I "export" or "save as" a file that was loaded from a source file in folder XYZ, DefaultFolderX would not automatically default to save it in folder XYZ. This solution is no faster than my current work around of always keeping a finder window open in the current working folder and dragging a folder from Finder cmd+Tab into the affinity save dialogue to select the what-should-be-default-anyway destination folder.

If any new file of any format is loaded from XYZ folder, then XYZ has be the current default folder for all saves and Exports.
you have your sidebar favourites there ready if you don't want this.

A 3rd Party solution is not a solution to this very Affinity-specific folder management oversight.

I'm not knocking DefaultFolderX though 🙂 

Web Dev/Designer mostly in the non-profit sector & maker community - Moved from Adobe in 2020 to all Affinity Publisher, Photo & Designer (+Beta)
On the whole enjoying Affinity SW - Plugging Gaps with:  Inkscape - GIMP - Image Vectorizer - Davinci Resolve 
Hardware:  Intel Mac (Catalina)  /  Sony Cam  /  GWEIKE Laser 

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8 hours ago, Wood said:

Thanks for that, but am I right in my thinking that if I "export" or "save as" a file that was loaded from a source file in folder XYZ, DefaultFolderX would not automatically default to save it in folder XYZ.

In one of the screenshots on https://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/ , there is an option labelled "Default to current document's folder in Save dialogs" — that might be what we need (assuming that Export also goes as a Save dialog). We should probably have a look at it!

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It looks like it might do the job - I will look at the trial properly 🙂
Though at £33 /  $35  - that's more than half the price of Designer!

Web Dev/Designer mostly in the non-profit sector & maker community - Moved from Adobe in 2020 to all Affinity Publisher, Photo & Designer (+Beta)
On the whole enjoying Affinity SW - Plugging Gaps with:  Inkscape - GIMP - Image Vectorizer - Davinci Resolve 
Hardware:  Intel Mac (Catalina)  /  Sony Cam  /  GWEIKE Laser 

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