Autosave from internet - can I turn it off?

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Hi all,

Just recently moved to mac and thoroughly enjoying it. The transition has been fun, the most challenging part I find it trying to find the mac equivilent to the things I did so often on Windows.

Anyway, so far has been pretty good. However I have a query regarding downloading files i.e pdfs, word docs etc.

I download quite alot of these documents for my course. I.e lecture slides. However, normally have no real need to save them. Which wasnt a problem on windows. But now when I do this on my mac, the file automatically saves to my downloads folder which I can see filling up quite quickly once my next semester begins.

Is there a way to disable automatic saving so that my hard drive doesnt get glutted!

Thanks, and what a resourceful forum!
 

bobtomay

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If you click on a download link, it is going to download and be saved.

Most sites with pdf files available, like manufacturers owners manuals, merely open in your browser and are not saved to the drive unless you save a copy.

The ones that require you to download them first in order to be able to open them, no, you cannot disable the downloading of them if you want to see them. You will just have to remember to go in and empty your downloads folder on occasion.
 
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this behavior is true in windows too, you just don't notice it because it downloads to a temp directory instead.
 

bobtomay

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this behavior is true in windows too, you just don't notice it because it downloads to a temp directory instead.

And by the time people send me their "problem" windows machine to fix, they'll have 2,000 and more pieces of junk sitting in that temp folder.
 
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I would prefer to have things like that (automatically downloaded items, pdfs that aren't saved as etc) downloaded to a different folder, then simply cron a rm of the contents.. hrm.. maybe I should set that up.
 
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Hi,
I'm also a bit annoyed by the "temp" files being in the Download folder.

I would prefer to have things like that (automatically downloaded items, pdfs that aren't saved as etc) downloaded to a different folder, then simply cron a rm of the contents.. hrm.. maybe I should set that up.
The problem is that the "temp" files are mixed with user files that were downloaded "on purpose" and saved there.

Tex
 
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yep, I understand that.. i'm pondering changing that behavior.
 
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i am also having this "issue". is there a way to set preferences on this feature so that if i look at the same document twice it will only save it once?
 
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The problem is that the "temp" files are mixed with user files that were downloaded "on purpose" and saved there.
Safari forces you to pick a folder to download to and the default folder is the Download folder. If you use Firefox you can have it ask you where to save the file each time you download something.

You can then manually put temp files into a temp folder you created and the other files wherever you want. Delete the temp folder when you want. I know it's not exactly what you guys were looking for.
 
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chas_m

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PDF files should generally not require downloading to view; unless you've turned off the ability, Safari will automatically load PDF files in-line in the browser (and you can still save them from there if you want to) instead of keeping them.

For Word documents I'm afraid there's no plug-in I know of that will open them in-line.
 
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And by the time people send me their "problem" windows machine to fix, they'll have 2,000 and more pieces of junk sitting in that temp folder.

I would have been guilty of this say a year ago, until that switch to OS X was made ....
 

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