How to enable expanded save dialog as default
There’s never been a time when I am saving a document in Mac OS X that I don’t click the expand arrow, allowing me to navigate the folder hierarchy to save files to exactly where I want them. Using the defaults command, you can set that expanded save dialog window to be the new default. Yes, you won’t have to click that expand arrow anymore – the directory structure will already be open and there for you to navigate! Check out the before and after screenshot below, and follow the easy instructions to try it out yourself…
How to Enable Expanded Save Dialog as Default
You will need to use the command line for this, so open up the Terminal and type or copy/paste the following commands.
Enable expanded save dialog
defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE
Disable expanded save dialog – revert back to Mac OS X default
defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool FALSE
AWESOME thank you so much
nice tip
I’m running the latest update to OS 10.4 and still don’t get the expanded “Save As” dialog box after running the script above. Is there something else I should try doing? This is really starting to bug me!
Keeping content on your site “forever” is so useful. It has been over two years since this was posted and I just found it today. I am fairly new to MACs and the Save/Save As dialogs drove me crazy. I wanted to be able to drill down to where I wanted to save a file, not let some silly OS decide where I had recently been or something.
thanks!
What’s the Terminal??