🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <686@salgado.stan.UUCP>, dce@stan.UUCP (David Elliott) writes:
> When a file open dialog box comes up, it seems to always be set to the
> last folder I opened a dialog box for, or the directory in which the
> application executed resides, even if I execute the application by
> double-clicking on an associated file icon in another directory.  It's
> really annoying to start an application and have to move up 3 or 4
> folders and then down 3 or 4 more just to get to the file I'm looking
> for.

The standard file dialog (and the Mac user interface in general) makes this
a fairly easy task compared to MS-DOS or Unix, so I don't really mind that
much.
 
> Is there a way to tell the system to start the dialog in the last
> active (as in used by the finder) folder?  How about a way to tell the
> dialog to start in the folder where the file resides that activated the
> application?  How about a way to attach a default folder to an
> application?  Just having these last two would help me immensely.

Word Perfect for the Mac does exactly what you want: it allows you to set a
default folder for data files, dictionary files, and temporary files (even
if these are on other drives).  Some might argue that this is not Mac-like
but it is one of the best features of Word Perfect for the Mac.  Maybe in the
future more software will add this feature.

> Assuming nothing exists that can do these things, is there any
> reason why an INIT couldn't be written to do this?

This is a good question.  I would assume that the answer is yes.  It would
seem to me that this would be a fairly simple addition to the SFScroll INIT
(or whatever it is called) that remembers the scroll position of the SF dialog
the last time it was used.  Of course, you would have to add a Control Panel
interface, etc.
 
> David Elliott		...!pyramid!boulder!stan!dce
> "Splish splash, I was rakin' in the cash"  -- Eno

-Michael


-- 
Michael Niehaus        UUCP: <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!mithomas
Apple Student Rep      ARPA:  mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu
Ball State University  AppleLink: ST0374 (from UUCP: st0374@applelink.apple.com)