Point to open File Explorer folder to change destination in "Save" dialog - complicated question

Many years ago when I used a Mac, there was an extension/addon that would, when saving/opening a file using the built-in File Manager, permit one to simply click in a folder (outside of the dialog box) and the dialog box would change to that folder. I think it was called "Click! There it is." or something like that.

I'll be a bit more expansive about this in case the simplified description, above, isn't adequate.

I have a photo editing app that does not, unfortunately, indicate the path of the photo's location unless I select "Show in Explorer" from a context menu. When I edit the photo and want to export the file, my organizational preference is to always keep the exported variants in the same folder as the original photo. So my workflow requires that I do a "Show in Explorer" on the original file so that folder opens. Back in the app I then select the "Export" option and the "save as" dialog opens. I then click, select, and copy the folder path of the original file (from that File Explorer window), then select the path in the "save as" dialog, paste in the desired path, and press the Enter key which, thankfully, does set the correct path for the ensuing export. I "OK" that dialog and the exported photo ends up in the correct folder.

The above seems like a lot of work. Of course, if the photo editing app had the ability to set the destination folder to always be the source folder (of the original file), I wouldn't be asking this question; however, that app's developers are...well, I won't make any disparaging remarks about them.

So is anyone able to help me? Thank you.

Barry

rumplestiltskin said:

So is anyone able to help me? Thank you.

Barry

Click to expand...

Hi Barry,
To sum it up, once you are done with your editing, your want to save the file to a pre-determined constant location.
It could be done, but not without knowing the name of the software and its version, as config file changes or a reg import may be required.

It's not a pre-determined, constant location; rather, it's the source folder of whatever photo I'm editing. The app is Luminar Neo. It will only remember the last folder it exported to which would be okay if all my photos were in one folder.

If I'm understanding you correctly, you want a fast method to arrive at your destination folder while navigating Explorer's Open/Save dialog which never learns, at the very least, your current work flow session's destination locations. If so, there is a program called Direct Folder developed by the same people who make TeraCopy that adds a toolbar above the Explorer title bar which allows you to not only save destination shortcuts to a drop down menu for quick navigation, but also allows you to actually set a default location for the particular app which calls for the Open/Save dialog. I just downloaded it yesterday, myself, so I am not able to provide my actual take either positive or negative. There is a free version which does what I mentioned already, and a paid version which adds further functionally, such as allowing the user to create submenus in their toolbar menus.

Based on your description , I doubt Teracopy is the answer since the destination folder will always be the source folder and I open photos from many different folders.

My "copy and paste path" workaround, as slow as it is, does work and is faster than navigating the "save" dialog to the correct folder. On my old Mac the extension would copy the path to whatever folder I clicked to the save dialog's path. In fact, I think there was a time when macOS supported that directly.

VinX71 - I do thank you for your suggestion re: Teracopy and I will check it out tomorrow when I return home.

If there was a way to simply drag the path of the open source folder (in File Explorer) to the path shown in the top of the "save" dialog from Luminary, that might be a slight speedup. I will also check that out tomorrow.

Most other photo editing apps I've used have three choices (radio buttons) for the destination folder in their "export" dialog:

1. Default (a user configurable choice).
2. User selected folder (which defaults to the last selected folder but may be changed during this export).
3. Source folder.

That covers all the necessary choices.

Ahh, VinX71; I re-read your post and see you were referring to Direct Folders, not Teracopy. I just read the product webpage and it might do the job (exactly as I remember that old Mac extension doing). I have DL'd it and will evaluate. Thanks for the lead! I'll advise results.

Oh yes. There's much more to the program than I will probably ever require but it looks like all I need to do is have Luminar show the source file in File Explorer, switch back to Luminar, Export and initiate the dialog to choose the destination folder, and then simply switch over to that source folder and Alt-Tab back to Luminar where the source folder is now shown in the dialog and then press the Enter key. (It actually takes much longer to describe the process than to just do it.)

Thanks to VinX71 and to all who tried to make sense of my situation.