Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 113132
cannot select download destination at time of download
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:36:57 UTC
When one downloads Openoffice using the automatic notification icon, there is no way to select or change the download destination. Instead one must go through a number of pages in the options to change it. As well, it is often not accepted. So one is contrained to downloading to the wrong location, and then transfering the file to the intended location. This may not seem like a significant defect, but virtually every other site permits selecting the download destination, usually with a suggested default. Worse, if the user doesn't have privileges to download to the suggested location, they can't even download. So this defect defeats the purpose of notification. What one would reasonably expect : 1) A download location is suggested, with the option to freely choose another location. 2) Under the options menu, an additional option to keep the previous suggested download location, or to suggest the latest download location. It is only of moderate utility to be able to configure the specific download location under the options menu. There could always be a default Openoffice download location if none already exists.
This is not a defect at it has been designed that way. "Worse, if the user doesn't have privileges to download to the suggested location, they can't even download." That's why the default is on the desktop. Every user has read and write access on his desktop!
So you're saying that this is only an error in conception ? The desktop is normally mostly hidden by open applications, and is not where one would normally want to store files. Sending everything to the desktop, without allowing user intervention at download time to send it elsewhere, makes the desktop a garbage can.
I've seen other applications that let the user save something on their desktop, with one click (on the desktop icon in the Windows Taskbar) you can reach the downloaded things and, e.g., start it if it's a .exe file. BTW: In real life everything is going over my desk before sorting it somewhere else. I'm pretty sure most other people are doing it the same. ;-)
@mla You missed the point. I know of no other application that insists on sending downloads to a predetermined location, instead of letting the user choose the download location *at the time of download*. b.t.w.: In my opinion, in real life no intelligent person would have everything put in one amorphous mass on their desk, mixed in with whatever is already there, before treating it. That is the correct analogy to what Openoffice currently does. My desk (and around it) is sorted, everything has (more or less) its place. My computer desktop, which is normally hidden as for most users, is never a destination for downloads : they all go directly to their destination. If I don't know where I want it, it doesn't get downloaded. Of course, if someone rarely downloads files, and doesn't care if a download is lost, maybe the current behavior of Openoffice is adequate.