File path?

[Phatman]

How do I display the file path of the file I'm working on in the workspace? I have files with same name in different folders and it gets confusing.

[thomaso]

For instance: "Fields" panel  > "Document Statistics" > "Path:"
Or: compare the modification dates in the Finder/Explorer.

For V1 on mac it was requested years ago to get the default mac feature that displays the file path with a right click on a document's name in the title bar or tab. I don't know if it was implemented in V2.

[walt.farrell]

The File menu has an item to open the folder in Finder or File Explorer, which can help.

[Phatman]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

For instance: "Fields" panel  > "Document Statistics" > "Path:"
Or: compare the modification dates in the Finder/Explorer.

For V1 on mac it was requested years ago to get the default mac feature that displays the file path with a right click on a document's name in the title bar or tab. I don't know if it was implemented in V2.

Yeah, I'm using V1. Thanks

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, Arun Sarkar said:

I get the File Path in V1 on Win when I put mouse pointer on title bar or tab.

Good to know. On mac, Affinity just repeats the already displayed file name – whereas macOS & usual mac apps show a pop-up menu that enables you to jump to the parent folder.

 

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, thomaso said:

On mac, Affinity just repeats the already displayed file name – whereas macOS & usual mac apps show a pop-up menu that enables you to jump to the parent folder.

In some Mac apps like Textedit I get a popup that shows the name, the tags field, & a "Where:" item that shows where the file is stored in a popup file path hierarchy list, but there is no way to jump to a parent folder. What it will do is move the file to any folder in the list if I select it, but I don't think that is the same thing as jumping to that folder.

[thomaso]

7 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Mac apps like Textedit (…) no way to jump to a parent folder

Did you try with a saved file?

To me it works for TextEdit, Preview, QuickTime, VLC, Acrobat, Podofyllin, BBEdit, ... They let me choose an entry in the displayed folder hierarchy to jump to the according Finder window. – InDesign doesn't display the path but offers a "Show in Finder" command instead.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, thomaso said:

Did you try with a saved file?

Yes, of course. Like I said, if I choose any folder in the path popup I can move the file to that folder but unless that is what you mean by "jump" I don't know why it is different for you.

[thomaso]

21 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I don't know why it is different for you.

I get what you describe with a left-click …

… whereas the option 'show path + jump' appears on right-click:

Another option in TextEdit / Plain Text: Drag the icon from the title bar in the text area -> pastes the path as text:
(same as dragging or copy/pasting any object from the Finder)

[loukash]

14 hours ago, thomaso said:

the option 'show path + jump' appears on right-click

Or cmd-click the file name or the proxy icon.

That's the standard MacOS document proxy behavior since the System 7 days.
Unfortunately, Affinity has never supported this, not even in the Separated Mode where they theoretically should have.
"Reveal in Finder" is the only quick way to find out.

Speaking of which, one of the first things I do when setting up MacOS is to enable the full path in Finder window title.
TinkerTool can do that, or Terminal: defaults write com.apple.finder "ShowPathbar" -bool "true"

defaults write com.apple.finder "_FXShowPosixPathInTitle" -bool "true" && killall Finder

(Alternatively there's also the built in "View → Show Path Bar" but that will cost valuable space of each Finder window while the window title area remains largely unused.)

Edited October 27, 2023 by loukash

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, loukash said:

Speaking of which, one of the first things I do when setting up MacOS is to enable the full path in Finder window title.
TinkerTool can do that, or Terminal: defaults write com.apple.finder "ShowPathbar" -bool "true"
(Alternatively there's also the built in "View → Show Path Bar" but that will cost valuable space of each Finder window while the window title area remains largely unused.)

Thanks for the tip, but for some reason the Terminal command doesn't work for me while the TinkerTool option does. I did relaunch Finder & with the Terminal write option defaults read com.apple.finder "ShowPathbar" returns 1 yet it does not have any effect. With the TinkerTool method, Terminal defaults read com.apple.finder "ShowPathbar" returns 0, so I guess there must be some other 'defaults' command for my OS version.

[loukash]

Just now, R C-R said:

defaults read com.apple.finder "ShowPathbar" returns 1 yet it does not have any effect.

Hm, I just copied the exact string via an online search. Usually I'm tinkering with the defaults using Prefs Editor rather than Terminal. 

[R C-R]

21 minutes ago, loukash said:

Hm, I just copied the exact string via an online search.

So I'm guessing you did not test the Terminal command on your system, right? If you try it to toggle between true & false does it work?

[loukash]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

So I'm guessing you did not test the Terminal command on your system, right?

Ugh, my bad. That's only the regular Path Bar which you can also enable via menu…

The correct command is 

defaults write com.apple.finder "_FXShowPosixPathInTitle" -bool "true" && killall Finder

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, loukash said:

Ugh, my bad. That's only the regular Path Bar which you can also enable via menu…

My bad, too: I should have figured that out by myself since it is obvious from Finder windows what it does.

Anyway, back to the thread topic it certainly would be helpful if the Mac Affinity versions worked like TextEdit, Preview, QT Player, etc. at least to the extent we could see the file path if we clicked on the document title, if not the other stuff like moving saved files to different locations or opening ("jumping") to a listed folder in Finder. it also would be nice if either a left-click on the title or in some other way we could see or set Finder Tags for the documents.

FWIW, I noticed that some apps like BBEdit don't show anything with a left click on the title (so no modifiable Name:, Tags: or Where: fields), just the file path hierarchy of the file with a right-click, which can be used to open any folder in that path in Finder. Others like TextEdit support the left-click popup with lots of Where: choices like Favorites & Recents that are not necessarily in the file's path. QT Player supports the left-click popup but may or may not offer any Where: choices, just Name: & Tag: ones depending on where(?) the file is stored or some such. All (?) of them support dragging the file icon in the title into a different folder to move it & those that support text support dragging it into the document to add the path as text.

My feeble point, such as it is, is that not all Mac apps support all these title bar options but hopefully the developers can find a way to support at least a minimal set.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

it certainly would be helpful if the Mac Affinity versions worked like TextEdit, Preview, QT Player, etc.

Given how much Serif devs ignore Apple's Human Interface Guidelines or accessibility support via System Events etc., I'm not shocked at all that it never happened. And I'm not holding my breath that it will ever change.

The only hope is the promised scripting support which wouldn't make much sense if it wouldn't be able to fetch the open document path.

56 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I noticed that some apps like BBEdit don't show anything with a left click on the title (so no modifiable Name:, Tags: or Where: fields)

Oh, I don't miss this feature at all. I find it highly annoying elsewhere.
BBEdit is "old school", and so am I in that regard.  

(Incidentally, after using TextWrangler or the free BBE version for literally decades, just yesterday I finally bought the full license because I desperately needed a full blown HTML editor to replace the meanwhile incompatible Espresso v2: the full BBEdit license costs actually less than an upgrade to Espresso 5, the latter not even being updated since a year or so.)

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

All (?) of them support dragging the file icon in the title into a different folder to move it & those that support text support dragging it into the document to add the path as text.

I vaguely recall reading that Apple in its infinite wisdom actually wanted to remove this feature but added it back upon receiving angry feedback.
But given that I effectively just switched from El Capitan to Ventura, I may have "missed" many of such intermediate "experiments". 

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

not all Mac apps support all these title bar options

According to what I read some time ago, only document based apps should be supporting it.

[R C-R]

19 minutes ago, loukash said:

Oh, I don't miss this feature at all. I find it highly annoying elsewhere.
BBEdit is "old school", and so am I in that regard.  

The one part of that I would really like for BBEdit to support is the Tags field. The Name field could also be useful too....

21 minutes ago, loukash said:

According to what I read some time ago, only document based apps should be supporting it.

But not all document based apps support all those title bar options. That's what my 'FWIW' stuff was all about.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

The one part of that I would really like for BBEdit to support is the Tags field.

To my surprise, now that I have the "license to BB edit", BBE now supports tag display in the Project sidebar!
Unfortunately though, it displays only tags blobs (kMDItemUserTags) but not if the "tag" is based only the "classic" Finder label attribute. I'll have to write them a feature request…

Also, speaking of tags/labels, Default Folder has quite extensive support for them (among so many other features) which comes in handy when using Affinity.
Default Folder 6 now supports tag/labels display in its menus. That's something I was missing since the good ole FinderPop days!
Default Folder 6 also supports scripts and Service/Quick Actions/Shortcuts plugins in Save/Export dialogs. I already made me a Shortcut "PDF open in Packzview" when exporting from Affinity. Totally simple – I've never used the Shortcuts app before – and works great: 

^ Also there in action the Reveal In Finder script which I found somewhere on the Default Folder website.

[MickM]

I came to the forums to ask why affinity designer doesn't have a proxy icon in the titlebar because I was having some issues figuring out where the file I was editing was located. I was disappointed to learn that this was a long sought after feature that the developers apparently are refusing to implement. If you're going to make a Mac application, and you want to make it a good one, then being consistent with the Mac way of doing things is part of that equation. I would presume Apple make it easy/straightforward for developers to follow their "standards". Disappointed...

[Dan C]

4 minutes ago, MickM said:

I was disappointed to learn that this was a long sought after feature that the developers apparently are refusing to implement.

Our developers don't tend to comment on Feature Request posts here on the Forums, though all are considered.

Unless the request has been specifically denied by our team, then the request remains under consideration.

Users are welcome to provide their own personal thoughts regarding the Affinity apps and development processes, but none of the comments above are from Affinity Developers and therefore I would personally not make the same conclusion as above.

Many thanks for your feedback here  

[Bit Disappointed]

The feature in macOS that allows you to see the path to an open document by right-clicking on the tab was introduced with OS X Mavericks (version 10.9), released in October 2013.

It would be exceedingly meaningful if Affinity supported this, and at the very least, if Affinity displayed the full path in the mouse-over text. Using 'Reveal in Finder' is cumbersome for a quick clarification and is intended for other use scenarios.