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Affinity Photo - Export to current folder


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When I Export (a PNG or JPG, etc) from Affinity Photo, the Export dialog panel offers the previous Export folder, regardless of where the current source image resides. I have to go browsing through deep photo collections to choose the original image folder.

But when I use Save As, the output dialog always offers the source image folder for the new file.

This inconsistency is awkward, and not particularly useful when editing a series of photographs that reside in different folders. There are times I want the exports from a series of images to all be placed in the same folder, sure, but usually I need the Export to live beside the original for comparison and future use.

I see two ways to achieve this.

(1) Leave the behaviour as it is but provide a checkbox on the Export dialog that would allow us to choose "current folder". It should remember its state between sessions. If we toggle it off before finalizing the Export, we want to target the previous Export folder. The remembering of the previous folder shouldn't change when we use the current folder via the checkbox, so that repeatedly saving some Exports to a specific folder will be easy, no matter how many times we also use "current folder". (You're already saving that path, so don't change it when you place the Export in the current folder.) The previous folder path would be set when we specifically browse for some target folder, just as it works today. The difference is that we could toggle on the "current folder" checkbox to save the Export beside the source image.

Or (2) You could use the concept you already use in Save As, and consistently offer the current image folder as the default folder. To avoid annoying people who enjoy the "remember the previous Export folder" concept, you could provide a way to choose some remembered Export folder and make a checkbox for "use assigned Export folder". With that toggled off, Export will use the folder holding the source image, just like Save As. An expectable place. Or just have a toggle for "use previous folder". That works too, but it doesn't seem as reliable as assigning an export folder on purpose. I would think that people wanting to always use some "previous folder" will actually prefer that the folder be consistent until they specifically ask it to be changed, so they can browse to export in some folder without accidentally altering their assigned export folder.

Thanks for reading. Great software you have here. Hope we can all enjoy improving it.

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In my opinion, it would be enough to define the directory/folder absolutely.

If it is defined relative (as it is now), it is necessary to specify "where", and dialog must be displayed.

If it is defined in absolute forms, there is no need to enter anything.

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

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Thanks, Pšenda. Simple is better.

By default, we should export to the current folder for the source image, and have a checkbox that would target some assigned Export folder for those times we want to create a collection of exports.

 

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The OSX default behaviour seems to be "use last used folder". "Use source folder" would be alternative which is not "official". Possibly AP/AD could add a simple option tick for "use source folder" but I have not seen it used in any software besides some batch processors. On the other hand Default Folder X is an OSX add on which's sole purpose is to add destination/source options to open/save dialogs. I have that installed.

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I'm on Windows... Without insult intended, since Affinity decided to sell to Windows customers, they shouldn't restrict the program to OSX behaviour. And besides, the essence of my problem is simple and the solution seems logical to me. When I open an image file in a folder, and save (export) a variation of that file, I fully expect it should go in the same folder by default, just as the Save As dialog offers, not into whatever folder I happened to export a completely different image into.

I cannot imagine a reason for Export to work differently than Save As, except for the purpose of exporting a bunch of different images into some particular folder as a collection, and for that I suggested the ability to assign a target folder that would not change until the user changed it on purpose. Then the user could save in the current folder or the target folder, as desired, with a simple checkbutton. I don't need this myself. I would almost always prefer to keep my variants with the original and deal with assembling collections outside of the Image Editor. Affinity Photo is not supposed to be a Catalog program.

So, again, for clarity: The default for Export should be to save the image in the same folder as the image that was opened, not whatever folder was last used as a target for some other image. If I intentionally export this image into some other folder, and in this same editing session want to export it again, then the "last folder used" concept makes sense. But when I reopen the image file, or open another one, I should be working in whatever folder holds that image file. That folder became the "last folder used" when I used it to open the file. A new file should save here by default..

Thanks for playing Where Should The File Go.

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There is a similar problem with Designer that seems half-fixed.

If I use File Explorer to open a folder and start Designer by clicking an afdesign file, and ask Designer to Export an image, that export will target the current folder as expected, so my png (for instance) will be beside my afdesign file. If I CLOSE Designer, use File Explorer to locate another folder, and click open an afdesign file there, then Designer will be there too, and an Export (or Place) will correctly offer this current folder.

Affinity Photo is no good at this. If I use File Explorer to start it on an image file, it will offer to Export into (or Place from) the last used folder.

And if I don't close Designer before clicking to open a file in another folder, Designer acts like Photo and doesn't move; an Export (or Place) will offer the old folder.

However... If I use the OPEN FILE DIALOG in Designer OR Photo to browse for a file in another folder, they will be correctly in that folder. An Export (or Place) will by default target that folder, as I expected they should.

But... if I use the Recent File menu in either program, they don't move to that other folder, they just open that file from a distance while standing in the old folder. A request to Export will offer this old (wrong) folder, not the folder holding the file being edited. A request to Place will also open this (wrong) folder.

The Recent File menu is therefore practically useless. It is not the same as using the Open file dialog, although it appears to be a shortcut way of doing just that.

Luckily, in both programs, the Open file dialog is able to get the program into the proper folder, so it should be easy enough for that logic to be approved for coding into the other methods of opening a file so they all work the same.

Please.

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  • 2 years later...
  • 1 year later...
10 hours ago, RossA said:

I get frustrated having to hunt where my export has finished up.

Why don't you redirect the export to the required (current) folder?

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/27/2021 at 9:11 AM, Pšenda said:

Why don't you redirect the export to the required (current) folder?

This is the logical solution, but sometimes you're rushing and you make assumptions. You export, assuming it will go into the folder you've just opened a file from, and instead it exports back to the previous folder you exported to, which could be an entirely different job. Of course, you can just export again, but at some point you still have to go and hunt down that initial export even if it's just to delete it to keep your files tidy!

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

Same, because no one remembers the folder one saved exports two weeks ago.

Furthermore, when you save an .afphoto and export afterwards, e.g. an jpeg, then you have to save the .afphoto again even when you did not change anything in between. So I normally change that sequence and export first and save .afphoto after that. There it happens often that the files go to the wrong folder. Please improve that.

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