After making intermittent progress on version 6 of Default Folder X for months, I’m hoping to get things moving faster so I can get the new features out to a wider audience soon. The new capabilities make Open and Save dialogs even faster and easier to use, as well as speeding access to recently used files and folders in the Finder.

Among the features I find most useful are a wider edit field in Save dialogs, so you can actually see and edit long filenames:

and a “quick entry” pop-up where you can type a few letters in the name of a folder or file you want to access:

I outlined the details of these features in a previous post.

In addition, the latest build synchronizes your preferences and history between multiple Macs, so you’ll have access to your favorite and recently used files and folders regardless of which Mac you’re using. The caveat here is that synced Macs must have their files and folders synchronized so that Default Folder X can find the items on both machines – if it can’t, those items will be grayed out in its menus.

DFX 6 also offers “post-save” actions that you can use to automatically handle files after saving them. Built-in actions include immediately opening a saved file, attaching it to an email, or running an AppleScript or Automator workflow on it.

If you’d like to give the new features a spin, you can download the latest development build here. While it’s not feature-complete, the features above are working well and are stable. Please see the Read Me file for details on enabling the new features, and if you’ve got suggestions, feedback or bug reports, send them to DefaultFolderX@stclairsoft.com