GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 143188
data directories not remembered
Last modified: 2005-04-01 15:51:15 UTC
It would save a lot of time if Gnumeric remembered data directories for - saving to (if I save a series of versions, I don't want to navigate repeatedly to the same place. Also each session. Gnumeric should default to either the location the file was loaded from, or the last save location - even in previous session.) - inserted objects (I insert an image, move to another cell, go to insert another image - oh dear: need to navigate to the same project directory again.)
*** Bug 125671 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
We choose directories in - File/Open - File/Save as - File/Print (to file) - File/Insert image - File/Save as image We could have separate default directories for each of these contexts. Per workbook, obviously. Or we could just have a single default directory per workbook. A single default directory is much simpler. Are there reasons to do something more complicated?
I was asked for an opinion on this for new documents the file chooser should probably put you at your home directory, or the directory last used during this session. for exisiting documents the file chooser should probably put you at the location the file was loaded from. (it might be necessary to allow the Save As directory to be differnt from the save directory, I'm not sure) > even in previous session. I'm not sure this is a good idea. my advice to the original poster would be to try and find existing applications that do what you want or very close to what you want to allow us to make comparisons more easily
My original problem in BugId 125671 was the frustration of having to re-navigate to open a series of monthly returns stored in the same directory. File/Open should always try to open in the last opened directory. Thinking about remarks for comment #2 from Jon-Kare Hellan, having an individual memory for some categories would be useful. I would tie Open & Save to the same location. It would be great to have Printing default to the last directory printed to (I tend to archive printouts into set directories for later referral). For comparison, OpenOffice remembers the last opened/saved directory, but when printing to a file it defaults to ~/, which I find annoying.
Thinking about the comments so far, I agree that Open and Print to should be different. I often find a need to work on a series of documents in one directory, putting the results into a different directory -- for example the next phase of a project, or a series of templates moved into a new project. Therefore, I think it makes more sense to have Open and Save in different default paths. As to the default path when opening the application, I think there are two options, either a global default for each type of path, or the last used for each type. Either has merits, but I would tend to go for the last used. Many people use an application regularly for the same task, so going back to where they were last time makes sense. A neat timesaver that I don't think I have seen used would be to have an "intelligent" drop-down for the path when Saving, Opening, Printing to, etc. This would be filled with the last used, the default, the previous 3 last used rather than the tree above. Navigating up the tree is easy enough using either the .. entries or an up-arrow button, but finding repeatedly something not adjacent is a bore.
Open will now default to the directory of the current file (from which the Open command was selected). Save-As will default to the directory of the current file too. I guess that leaves images.
*** Bug 169481 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Fixed in (goffice) cvs head.