Force Your Mac to Show the Filesystem Navigation in Save/Open Dialog Windows

Productivity blog Lifehacker tells us about a useful tip that affects the File Open/Save dialog windows in Mac OS X. One simply command will force Mac OS X to display the filesystem navigation in these windows by default.

Fig. 1: The Mac OS X Save dialog window, in collapsed mode. This is Mac OS X’s default behavior. Where are my files and folders?

“By default, Mac OS X’s save and open dialogs only offer a dropdown to choose a place to find or put your file (see pictured). But a command line tweak sets the default dialog to the expanded view, which is a lot more helpful when it comes to navigating the file system.”

See “Mac Tip: Expand save/open dialogs by default” at Lifehacker for the full command.

This command must be entered in the Mac OS X terminal; to open the terminal, press CMD+Space to bring up a spotlight search, and search for “Terminal”. Click on the Terminal, and enter the command from Lifehacker at the command prompt.