Mac Folder Navigation is KILLING ME!!!!

This on is so hard to explain but it annoys me at least a dozen times per day. So I'll try.

The folder navigation in Mac OSX (I'm using 10.6.7) is sometimes, but not always contextual. Sometimes I'll find myself having navigated to a sub-folder (e.g., for a save or open), but I can't "back out" of it. This is super annoying, since the Mac knows exactly where I am.

Let's say I have a sub-folder called "travel" in my "documents" folder. And in "travel" there are several others, like "New York 2011" and "Florida 2011".

If I open a travel itinerary from email and try to save it, I might find "New York 2011" in the recent list. I can navigate to it, but I can't navigate out of it to "travel" and thus find "Florida 2011". Instead I have to start over at documents -> Travel -> Florida 2011.

This is a simple illustration, but you can imagine what a pain it is when you're 7 sub-folders down.

Any insight?

Thanks

If you are at the Save/Open dialog and looking at the folder listed. You can click on it to show you a hierarchy of that directory structure, if you don't like that, you can choose "Other..." from there and then that should allow you to go to an entirely different directory..

@Raz0rEdge - no, I can't. The hierarchy doesn't appear. If i create a new Word document, for instance, and then try to save it, the default save folder is the last one I saved to. If that folder is a sub-folder or a sub-sub folder, I can't navigate upward. This is so frustrating.

I wrestled with this a little when I first got the Mac - but I understand it better now. If you click the drop down arrow to the right - you'll get a better feel for where you are in the folder structure. It'll show your file/folder structure below the save as dialog box. If you click the dropdown window - it will show the folder you're in - plus some of your most recently used folders.

If I was on my Mac right now I'd describe it better - and with a few screenshots - but I'm at work on Windows XP.

What you can do is "customise toolbar" in Finder to add this:



when you click that, it will show your heirarchy, and you can choose which to be in by clicking it.

Also try Finder -> View -> show pathbar -> this will show a pathbar at the bottom.

Or hold down cmd when clicking on the folder title it will also show you a list of folders that will help navigate. (Bonus tip this cmd-click title does different things, try it in Safari)

There is Also Finder -> cmd-up arrow - that is go to enclosing folder (cmd-down arrow is go into selected folder)

Edit:
I see that you are asking about the save dialogs. There is a little down arrow that shows the navigation for folders. Also try the cmd-up and cmd-down, but you could also try using column view. That might help the navigation. Also try default folder X - I got it in a bundle but it gives a lot more navigation and other options.
http://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/

Are you clicking the little blue button with the black triangle on it in the Save dialog box?

Does your dialog look like the first pic or the second?
Click on the blue square with the black triangle to get the second.

Default Folder X can probably help you. It soups up the default open and save boxes by adding a chrome that lets you, among other things, navigate to your most recently used folders (whether they were used by the program in question, or something else) or to other folders in a hierarchical way. Check out the screencast on their home page. It's free to try for 30 days too.

(Another program that I use, which I highly recommend, is Total Finder, which brings tabs to Finder so you don't have a million windows open keeping you disorganized and frustrated)

Good luck!

jeffreystringer said:

This on is so hard to explain but it annoys me at least a dozen times per day. So I'll try.

The folder navigation in Mac OSX (I'm using 10.6.7) is sometimes, but not always contextual. Sometimes I'll find myself having navigated to a sub-folder (e.g., for a save or open), but I can't "back out" of it.

Click to expand...

That was pretty good. The only thing you failed to mention was that you're in the Save Dialog, not the Finder itself, as "folder navigation" could imply.

BrianLachoreVPI said:

If you click the drop down arrow to the right - you'll get a better feel for where you are in the folder structure. It'll show your file/folder structure below the save as dialog box. If you click the dropdown window - it will show the folder you're in - plus some of your most recently used folders.

Click to expand...

That's it. That dropdown appears when you click the arrows next to the name of the folder it's currently pointing to, and it shows you the folders above it in the hierarchy, listed in reverse, that is, the topmost in the structure is at the bottom of the dropdown, then the recent folders list.

IvanLasston said:

Also try Finder -> View -> show pathbar -> this will show a pathbar at the bottom.

Or hold down cmd when clicking on the folder title it will also show you a list of folders that will help navigate. (Bonus tip this cmd-click title does different things, try it in Safari)

There is Also Finder -> cmd-up arrow - that is go to enclosing folder (cmd-down arrow is go into selected folder)

Click to expand...

Excellent tips, thanks ALOT!

IvanLasston said:

Also try Finder -> View -> show pathbar -> this will show a pathbar at the bottom.

Click to expand...

Super tip thanks!

If you want to skip past all navigation hassles altogether when for a time using a particular group of folders a lot and they're otherwise buried, drag em over to sidebar and raft 'em up there.

That has turned out to be a pretty cool feature.

when you're done with them they can return whence they came.

I highly recommend Total finder for all your navigation related worries.

AccessPA said:

If you want to skip past all navigation hassles altogether when for a time using a particular group of folders a lot and they're otherwise buried, drag em over to sidebar and raft 'em up there.

That has turned out to be a pretty cool feature.

when you're done with them they can return whence they came.

Click to expand...

Well, they don't actually move.

OMG

Thank you robduckyworth & IvanLasston - this has been a pain in the backside for me ever since I switched over to a Mac and I (foolishly) assumed there wasn't anything I could do about it!

lol - can't believe I've been putting up with this annoyance for so long!

That's one thing I like about using Macs. So much of this level of operation can be changed.