Archive for the ‘Default Folder X’ Category

Default Folder X and El Capitan

Friday, July 10th, 2015

ElCapitanScreenshot2 As some of you have undoubtedly noticed since installing beta 2 of El Capitan (aka Mac OS 10.11), the current version of Default Folder X is not compatible with the upcoming OS X release. The Default Folder X background application will run, but cannot enhance the file dialogs of many applications.

To dip into the technical side a bit, this is due to Apple’s new System Integrity Protection, which prevents Default Folder X’s scripting addition from loading into some applications and, most importantly, into the “PowerBox” helper app that presents Open and Save dialogs for all sandboxed applications.

Never fear, however – Default Folder X isn’t dead. I’ve been hard at work on a major revision of Default Folder X that will support El Capitan (yes, I saw this coming). It uses a completely different method for enhancing your file dialogs, and adds a number of handy new features and changes that you folks have requested.

I don’t yet have a firm release date – to be honest, I may have to scale back in a few places to get this into your hands before El Capitan ships, but it’s on the way. The upgrade will be free for anyone who purchases Default Folder X in the 6 months before the new version is released, which means if you buy now, you won’t be paying again for version 5 in a few months.

More news as things develop – for now it’s back to Xcode for me…

– Jon

P.S. And yes I KNOW the website relaunch is way overdue, but software comes first.

P.P.S. For more on System Integrity Protection, read Glenn Fleishman’s article at Macworld.com.

Default Folder X 4.7.2 : Revisiting Yosemite’s 50-foot-save-sheets and DFX’s trouble with alias files

Thursday, June 18th, 2015

Open with preview The 10.10.3 release of Yosemite fixed most of its “Attack of the 50 foot save sheet” issues, but a few remain. Specifically, in Photoshop and Illustrator there are still dialogs that grow larger each time you use them. Version 4.7.2 of Default Folder X fixes these problems.

Version 4.7.2 also adds additional safeguards to keep Default Folder X from hanging when it encounters damaged alias files, fixes some graphical glitches, and addresses a number of bugs and compatibility issues.

A full list of changes is available on the Default Folder X Release Page, along with links to download installers in English, German, French, Danish and Japanese. Because Default Folder X 4.7.2 includes a fix for possible freezes when it encounters bad alias files, we recommend that anyone who’s using Default Folder X upgrade to this version. Download your copy now!

Default Folder X 4.7.1 gets MS Office working correctly in 10.10.3, addresses a crash and other issues

Wednesday, April 29th, 2015

Default Folder X 4.7.1 is now available on the Default Folder X Release page. It fixes what appears to be a bug in the 10.10.3 update of Yosemite: old Carbon applications like Microsoft Word and Excel always dump you back to your Documents folder when you use an Open or Save dialog. This release also fixes a bug that could cause Default Folder X to crash if it encountered a damaged alias file, and brings its super-wide filename edit fields to Mavericks for all you folks that have been smart enough not to upgrade to Yosemite.

I’ve also fixed a number of less earth-shattering issues:

  • two window redraw glitches and some flickering that happened on occasion
  • a situation where Default Folder X could miss some open Finder windows in its Finder-click feature
  • better compatibility with DEVONthink
  • making command-delete put up a warning in Save dialogs before deleting the folder you’ve got selected

If you’re a Default Folder X 4 user, grab a copy of this free update, especially if you use Word, Excel, or pre-CS6 versions of Adobe’s applications.

Default Folder 4.7 enlarges filename edit boxes, addresses various issues

Tuesday, April 7th, 2015

I’m very happy to be able to deliver a feature that a lot of people have been asking for: Default Folder X 4.7 now enlarges the edit box in Save dialogs, letting you see and type long filenames without having to scroll back and forth in a narrow little text field. Here’s a picture from my earlier post showing the new wide text box:

In addition, this release addresses a bunch of issues (aka bugs), including one that could sometimes cause long delays in Default Folder X appearing after a file dialog came up. Default Folder X used to ask OS X to mount network drives when it checked to see if your favorite and recently used folders were still around, and apparently that’s a Bad Thing To Do in Yosemite.

Version 4.7 turns off Default Folder X’s fix for the 50-foot-save-sheet bug if you’re running Mac OS 10.10.3 because Apple’s finally gotten around to fixing that themselves. It also fixes the duplication of Spotlight comments when it saves them, makes command-delete safer in Open dialogs, and addresses a few other issues.

Get the full details and download links on the Default Folder X release page.

Changing the columns shown in your file dialogs

Tuesday, March 31st, 2015

I haven’t seen this little Yosemite tidbit anywhere on the web and have had people request it as a feature in Default Folder X, so I know it’ll help at least a few folks out there.

In the Open and Save dialogs of Cocoa applications (Safari, Preview, Pages, etc) you can right-click on the column headers to get a popup menu to change which columns are displayed in all of your file dialogs.

Simply turn the checkboxes off and on by selecting items from the menu. Once you’ve got the columns you want, you can rearrange them by clicking on a particular column header and dragging it left or right.

As I said, the popup menu is only available in Cocoa applications, but the changes you make will take effect in all of your applications – even Carbon apps (like Chrome, Word, Excel, etc) that don’t have the popup menu.

Default Folder X : Making space for longer filenames

Friday, March 27th, 2015

Notice anything different about the “Save As” dialog below? I’ve highlighted part of it in red to give you a hint 🙂

The edit field for the filename is much wider than usual – you can actually see the entire (long) name that Safari supplied for me. I’ve gotten a lot of requests for this in the past, but haven’t been able to make it happen until now. If you’re interested in trying it out and giving me feedback, I’m busy testing it and could use your help.

The details:

  • This is a Yosemite-only feature at the moment
  • It’s only been tested with a handful of applications and needs more exercise
  • If it doesn’t work in some application, the results shouldn’t be awful – some UI items will just be misplaced

If you’d like to help out (or are just anxious to get your hands on this) you can download this pre-release version of Default Folder X:

http://www.stclairsoft.com/download/DefaultFolderX-4.7d6.dmg

Please send your feedback to DefaultFolderX@stclairsoft.com.

Thanks!

– Jon

Default Folder X 4.6.14 : Fixes for a bunch of issues, big and small

Wednesday, February 25th, 2015

I’m happy to announce that Default Folder X version 4.6.14 is available today – it offers a number of bug fixes and improvements.

Most importantly, it fixes crashes that occurred for some users of ArchiCAD, Mathematica and Cubase 8 (as well as other audio apps that use VST plugins). The problem isn’t widespread and I was never able to determine exactly what circumstances trigger it, but found a way to work around it thanks to very dedicated Default Folder X users Frank Heller and Dave Smith. Thanks guys!

The other fix I’m personally happy about is squashing a bug that caused the Rebound feature to fail to select a file every now and then. It’d work fine almost all the time, but the inconsistency was maddening when it failed.

Other improvements are UI tweaks, including the option to resize file and folder icons as you resize a file dialog, a better error message when you’ve got Little Snitch blocking Default Folder X from checking your registration code, a fix for a very rare crash (thanks Sergey Kritskiy), and more reliable tagging in the face of other apps that try to delete tags after Default Folder X adds them.

There’s a full list of changes on the Default Folder X Release Page, along with links to download the new version in English, German, French, Danish and Japanese.

Default Folder X 4.6.13 update fixes a few issues

Wednesday, January 7th, 2015

I just posted an update to Default Folder X that corrects a few issues that have come up:

  • Fixed a bug in which Default Folder X’s Get Info dialog would fail to prompt you for a file when invoked from the menubar while there was no file dialog active.
  • On Mac OS 10.8.5, Default Folder X could cause Save sheets to get progressively smaller. This has been fixed.
  • Corrected a compatibility issue with Glyphs for Mac.

If you’re running Mac OS 10.8.5 you should definitely install the update immediately. Or if you use the Glyphs font editing app or rely on Default Folder X’s Get Info feature, grab the update now. Otherwise, it’s not crucial that you rush to get the new version.

Happy New Year!

Default Folder X Users: Please stop using MacCleanse and MacKeeper

Tuesday, January 6th, 2015

The most recent versions of MacCleanse 4 and MacKeeper delete Default Folder X’s preference files, even when Default Folder X is still installed on your Mac. Among other things, this will delete your Default Folder X license information and revert it to running in demo mode. To avoid this problem, please stop using MacCleanse and MacKeeper until their developers have fixed these bugs. I’ve notified them about the problem.

Thanks! – Jon

Default Folder X 4.6.12 fixes ever-growing Save dialogs, recent folder tracking and more

Friday, December 12th, 2014

Here’s the latest release of Default Folder X. It fixes the “Attack of the 50-foot Save Sheet” bug in Yosemite, makes the initial folder in Mail and NetNewsWire file dialogs work sanely,  and addresses some problems in Default Folder X itself. It should track your recent folders better, its contextual menu works in column view in Yosemite, and the menubar menu now has all the more-frequently-used stuff at the top, where it’s easier to get to.

I’m still working on a couple of additional issues in Yosemite (though they occur very infrequently), so the website isn’t going to get its makeover until after the holidays (sigh). Yosemite’s a bit of a frustrating beast.

And one more thing… If you find that Default Folder X keeps asking you to enter your registration code every few days, stop using MacKeeper. Their latest release mistakenly deletes Default Folder X’s preference files. I’ve already notified them of the problem, but it’d probably get fixed a little faster if you contacted them too (use the phone number at the bottom of the linked page).

A list of changes and download links are on the Default Folder X Release page.