Sorry for the silence - things have been very busy behind the scenes here and there’s a lot to catch up on!

Version 4.0.7 of Default Folder X was posted yesterday, cleaning up some problems that cropped up with Word 2008 after Microsoft’s 12.1.1 update earlier this month.  There are also corrections for a few features that weren’t working as they should, and some re-engineering under the hood to allow for expansion in the future.

The update is free for everyone that’s got a valid license for Default Folder X version 4 (including those who received a free upgrade because they purchased version 3 on or after June 1, 2007).  Just download the installer and run it - it’ll update your copy to the latest version.

You can read more about this release and download copies from:

http://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/release.html 

Adam Aaron asked if I could make DFX pop up its menu under the mouse when he pressed a certain key combination. You can actually do this now with a simple AppleScript and one of the numerous macro utilities out there (Adam used QuickSilver to make it work on his machine).

First, write a little AppleScript like so:

tell application "Default Folder X"
ShowMenu
end tell

Then have your macro utility of choice (QuickSilver, iKey, QuicKeys, or whatever) run the script when you hit your favorite key combination, and there you go

(Note: If you’re running Default Folder X with its “Show icons and menus in the Dock” setting turned off, the application target in the AppleScript should be “Default Folder X Helper” instead).

I occasionally get reports of problems between Default Folder X and Adobe InDesign. One user has done some digging and found that InDesign has some pretty major, known problems with Leopard’s Navigation Services (NavServices is the part of OS X that provides the Open and Save As dialogs). You may get crashes in InDesign when running Leopard, regardless of whether you’re using Default Folder X or not, and unfortunately, they’re not things that I can fix in DFX. For more details, see:

• http://blogs.adobe.com/indesignchannel/2008/05/leopard_alert_1053_contains_fi.html#more
• http://indesignsecrets.com/leopard-1053-fixes-some-navigation-services-crashes.php
• http://indesignsecrets.com/indesign-cs3-vs-leopard-status-report.php

There are a couple of workarounds described in the blog comments. Tim Cole at Adobe has written up one in his recent blog post.  A better one has been posted by Craig Swanson at CreativeTechs.

Thanks to James Wondrack for tracking down this info.

A new version of DFX is now finished and up on the web site (the Japanese installer should be coming later today).  Version 4.0.6 contains a bunch of compatibility fixes for various applications that do things in slightly nonstandard ways that would confuse Default Folder X.

I’ve also added a little code to try and make column view more tolerable in Open and Save dialogs.  Default Folder X will now set the default size for columns based on the size of the rightmost column in the last Open or Save dialog you used (not the preview column, but the rightmost column containing a list of files and folders).  I know this is still a little “clunky” - it’d be great if I could save and restore the various widths you’ve set for all the columns, or auto-size them to fit the actual contents of the column - but there are limitations in Leopard’s Open and Save dialogs that make those impossible or impractical.  So, this change makes it better than it was, but still not as I want it.

David over at http://www.macbeginners.net/ has posted a screencast showing off some of Default Folder X’s features. You can view the HD version directly at vimeo if you like, too, but give David’s site a look, especially if you’re new to the Mac.