I spent the last few days investigating several applications that I thought would improve my daily work flow. I have a very busy couple of months ahead and anything that makes my day to day activities less of a hassle is well worth investing in from my point of view. Enter Default Folder X, a fantastic user interface modification application from St Clair Software. Default Folder X is not really an application in it’s own right, it’s more of a modification to the way the Mac currently handles the saving of files. One of the few things that annoys me about my MacBook Pro is that saving files can be a bit of a pain, particularly when you are working on mutiple projects with several different applications, getting to the right directory can be troublesome to say the least.
Default Folder X then solves this problem providing an intuitive and easy to use approach to the concept of saving files. An additional GUI component forms around the standard save dialog box within applications that provides a quick and easy way of accessing any directory on the Mac. Moreover the application allows for the setup of frequently accessed folders on an application basis, so if for example there are three or four folders that you use frequently when working on writing reports for example you can establish default folders for applications when doing that. There are a lot of customisation options such as the ability to have an icon in the menu bar for access to directories.
While this functionality may seem to already be available to you it really isn’t in any sort of usable way. The amount of time I spent trying to navigate between folders when working on projects is significant and more often than not I would save files to the desktop and move them to the directory of choice afterward. I really can’t stress how much of an improvement Default Folder X has made to my daily work flow, navigating the file structure of my MacBook Pro has never been easier and saving files is a breeze now. I can even perform additional tasks such as renaming files from within the save dialog box and can access recently used directories in seconds. It makes working with any application so much better.
I highly recommend that you check Default Folder X out, it may seem like something you can live without to begin with but the more you use it the more you will realise that it is a fantastic addition to any work flow. I am delighted to announced that the lovely people at St Clair Software have provided me with one copy to give away for free. All you have do is leave a comment in response to this post on the blog between now and 1st January stating how you think Default Folder would help with your work flow. The winner will be announced at the beginning of January. Best of luck.
Competition Winner is Erica – congratulations, check your email for further instructions. Thanks to everyone for taking part.
Rating: 
I owned DFX for quite a while before I really started to use it. Basically just too lazy to dig into it much. Then I started using Leap from Ironic Software, a file tagging app. DFX also incorporated the ability to add OpenMeta tags.
Now I use DFX constantly for quick access to folders and files. The power was there all the time. Too bad I took so long to see it. Plus the added benefit of tagging is icing on the cake.
It is definitely a handy tool. It has been on my wishlist for a while.
Seems to be a great utility. Will try it. Tks for this review.
I tried it once and it basically let me save/find a file twice as fast.
Great review, this looks like a very handy app to have. It’s nice to find reviews with a very objective opinion about a certain app, just getting down to business on what I could use it for. Being someone who is always trying to find a better way of doing things, I think this app will suit me perfectly!
Greetings from Brazil,
Tyago
For sure it’a a great help when it comes to saving and opening pictures with Photoshop. Different projects, different folders, different HDs. Perfect time saver.
Sounds like something I need to try out.
I love DefaultFolder X. Have it on one of my computers and have realized that I can’t live without it. Now thinking of buying a second license for a second computer.
The concept of default folders does indeed seem nice. Given the number of different apps I usually work with this will help my workflow by letting me open different default folders for each app. I also like the idea of putting all folders related to a project as a folder set and switching mode when I work on different projects!
Does the have apple script to be able to change folder sets?
Nice summary of Default Folders features. I’ve used the trial and found setting an application to always begin in a selected folder to be an invaluable feature of this program.
It takes at least one mouse click out of the save process, and usually many more.
Thanks for the review. I’ll definitively check out this app.
Default Folder X would help me quickly navigate to my Dropbox shared folder to make files public.
I work in a shop where many customer and artwork folders are accessed each day. It seems DFX would be a boon to the workflow.
Just a very elegant way to increase productivity.
Oh man. Let’s talk about pulling together lots of scattered images for a project in Gimp and using that new picture in a website in Espresso. Jumping to the right folder is easy in Windows – copy and paste the path from the Address bar in Explorer into the filename in the Open or Save dialog. No such luck on Mac OS X unless you’ve got Default Folder X.
I used Default Folder for years before the advent of OS X and have missed its like. I don’t understand why the developers of OS X apparently forgot or arbitrarily rewrote Apple’s HIG, let alone incorporate 3rd-party UI improvements like Default Folder (X) already well established in the Mac OS Classic years.
This app looks quite interesting and could help with organising college work and other projects but id have to try the trial before i know if its of any use to me personally.
Great review, this looks like a really helpful app, would be great to have it on my own computer.
Sounds like a great piece of software. Will definitely have a look at it.
This looks like a pretty cool app. I think could really help me organize all of my media projects that I work on. I am normally pretty organized, but when I start one of these projects, I am forced to leave everything on the Desktop (which I hate) so I can get to what I need faster. DFX could really help…
Simply one of my favorite utilities of all times.
You never get how handy it is until you work on someone else’s computer and badly miss it. =\
Get your copy, now!
Great review I could use this to better organise and save my documents.
Would be very handy and would stop me from constantly moving through finder windows all the time.
This is computer worker’s dream! Being a web designer I have tons of folders dedicated to clients, invoices, contracts, icons, logos, stock photos, Photoshop brushes, HTML & CSS files, the list goes on… There are just so many folders that I’m saving into and Finder becomes very limited. If this allowed me to spend less time in Finder then I definitely see my work flow greatly improving if I had this.
Definitely looks like a good addition to anyone’s GTD arsenal in that all those seconds saved == more time to do what you need to do.
For me personally? I’d love to be able to quickly sort and categorize photos I’ve downloaded from NetNewsWire into the right folders without having to go through the task of navigating to the right ones every time I restart my machine.
And, as far as work is concerned, I could use it with iWorks and it would save me heaps of time navigating my work directories to drill down to the this year, this month folder.
This definitely gonna help me to organize my files. My downloads folder is messed up with everything and also my desktop too..
Really useful app/tool, particularly when you use lots of different applications, and you need to save images in a folder whose path could be thousand folders away from the location where you save texts and other files.
Competition Winner is Erica, congratulations. I have forwarded confirmation to your email address along with further instructions about getting your free copy of Default Folder X.
Thanks everyone for taking part!!
Thank you very much, I got my license right away and am loving Default Folder X so far!