Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 94561
allow separate default folders for different document types
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:37:37 UTC
I would like to be able to set separate default paths (under |Tools|Options|OpenOffice.org|Paths|) for each type of document (Writer, Calc, Impress, Base). As a heavy user of Microsoft Office for more than 10 years, I have so many of each type of files that I like to keep them segregated into their own directories under "My Documents". (I'm running Windows XP Home SP2.) I originally mentioned this as a 2nd comment in a bug-report I had filed (closed Issue 90463), and 'cornouws' didn't think it was a good idea, because the files ought to be separated by subject matter and not by file type. I can appreciate that. That's what we do where I now work - a separate folder for each client. But there are also many times where subjects don't seem predictable or users just don't have the time & patience to organize, and hundreds of documents from a dozen different programs all end up in one big mess in the 'My Documents' folder. At my last employer, that was the norm. Having the ability to set MS Office up on their computers and at least default all spreadsheets to an 'Excel' folder and all word-processing documents to a 'Word' folder helped a great deal. And having one default place for all my Access databases and nothing else also made life much easier. THAT's why I'd like to be able to set such defaults. The user wouldn't have to have separate folders if he didn't want to, and you can always override them and save your documents someplace else. But making those separate defaults possible at least provides a minimum level of organization - especially for those who accept Microsoft's default of hiding file extensions. Thanks, Tim
Hi Tim, Thanks for your explanation. I still do not support the idea as such, but do set to new. IMO something else with folders is more important and a bit related: when opening or saving a file, is something done with the last used location and/or the file on the screen? There must be issues for this. At least I've seen debates/discussions on the subject. Without choice for a change, atm. But if the engineers consider it a succesful candidate for implementation, I could initiate a discussion on user experience, to see if we can find a better solution. What do you think?
TM->requirements: please have a look, thanks !
Depending on how it's implemented, I think it could be very useful. But what I think of when reading your suggestion is something MS Office has always done, and which I assumed OO was already doing as well. I don't really have the experience with OO to know, because most of my work so far is still in MS Office. (I hope to change that after v3.0 is finalized.) My OO work has been limited thus far to either creating or opening one file, working on it, saving it, and then closing the file and the whole program. Word, Access, and Excel always open looking at their default directories. But if I tell Excel to go get a file in xyz folder, it remembers that for the rest of the session unless I tell it something else. Any old file I had open will remember it's home and be saved back there, but any new file I create & save will default to that xyz folder. If that's not how OOo already works, then I would consider that a bug in desperate need of being fixed. -- Tim