Product Reviews

Default Folder X boldly claims to offer 'Open and Save dialogs for the rest of us'. The application works in the background, powering up Mac OS X's weak Open and Save dialog boxes, adding extra features. You'll soon wonder how you ever worked without it.

The application behaves well. It doesn't patch the operating system; instead, when an application launches, Default Folder X adds code to the application's memory space, enabling Default Folder X to communicate with OS X's Navigation Services. In Finder, Default Folder X is similarly transparent, appearing only as a Dock icon or menu-bar extra, depending on your settings in the application's preferences. The preferences - accessible via System Preferences - enable Default Folder X to be fine-tuned; you can also create a folder for each application (one that

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appears by default when you access an Open or Save dialog) and 'Favorite Folders', each with its own hotkey that works in Open and Save dialogs and Finder.

The application is most prominent in Open and Save dialogs, attaching a toolbar to the dialog's right-hand side. Default Folder X clears the topmost pop-up menu of OS X's junk, instead using the menu solely for hierarchical navigation of your hard drive. The toolbar is where additional options are housed. The Utility menu enables you to set the current folder as the default, or open it in Finder. You can also rename or trash an item, or Get Info on it. The Computer menu provides access to Desktop, Home, Computer and mounted volumes. The Favorites menu enables you to access the current application's default folder, the folder that contains the application, and your pre-defined favourites, while the Recent menu houses recent folders. Finally, the Finder Window menu lists open Finder windows, although you can select these more easily by hovering over an open background window until it turns grey and then clicking it.

All Default Folder X menus have numerous keyboard shortcuts, and once you learn them, you can rapidly navigate favourite and recent folders, saving seconds every time you open or save a file.

Default Folder X is expensive, but it's one of the best shareware applications around and therefore comes highly recommended.