[Issue] Save as location, how to remember...

[fiveqs]

I have been making a number of recipe texts and each time I save them I have to go thru the process of telling Writer where to save the file. I searched the forum and looked thru the manual but couldn't find anything that tells me how to get Writer to remember the last save location so that on my next save it goes there to begin with. Can anyone help please? This is quite cumbersome when doing lots of little files.
Thanks Much!
Paul Q

[Hagar Delest]

You should subscribe and vote for that request (up to 2 votes per issue) : Issue 54536 - File dialog does not remember last saved location.

[fiveqs]

Thanks! That's the issue. I made 2 votes but didn't find how to subscribe, so tried leaving a comment. Still don't see how to subscribe tho. I'll just have to bookmark the issue#.
PQ

[floris v]

You have to register there and log in if you want to vote. Every single OOo related website has its own membership database, so you have to register again and again.

[TerryE]

In the meantime you need to think about how you organise you filing. I little bit of thought and planning will help you to make sanity of all this. I'll talk in XP terms because you probably have this on your PC but these concept map to any of the OSs on which OOo runs.

The first thing is that you should collect your documents logically and map that logical collection onto corresponding folders: in other words just like any filing system, you actually need a system. This could be hierarchical. In such a concept there is a "master folder" for your documents and this is My Documents on XP. And in OOo through the Tools->Options->OpenOffice.org->Paths you can see/change where this is. So if for example you always want to collect your office documents in a subFolder Office then you can change this to MyDocuments\Office. From this you can build your hierarchy. It is always a good idea to avoid storing documents in the document root.

The next thing is that the OS implements the idea of ShortCuts (symlinks in Linux) to allow to navigate quickly to other folders. So what you want to do is to maintain your both your top level of folder and a list of short cuts to your current favourite folders in this root. Keep the names short and simple.

So let's say you and your son work on your recipies so you decide to keep three recipe folders in Shared Documents so you can both get to it. Let's say one is Cake Recipes. You can now go into Explorer, find an select this Cake Recipes folder then right-click on it and select copy. Now go to you My Documents and again Cake Recipes but this time select Paste Shortcut. You will see that a folder appears called Shortcut to Cake Recipes but that the Folder icon has a little arrow symbol in the bottom left corner to indicate that this is a link to the original and not a second copy. Again right-click on it and select Rename and rename it to _Cakes. Do this trick for any other folders that you routinely refer to.

The whole reason for doing this is to minimise the number of clicks you need to make to file stuff. Now when you do a SaveAs, you are taken to My Documents. The reason for the "_" in Cakes was to get this folder to the top of the list along with any other favourites that you might have: _Car, _House, _Work, _Yoga... so that one click takes you to the folder you want.

The other advantage of such links is that you can copy them to your Desktop so that you are also only one click away from them from your Desktop.

Hope this helps, and forgive me if I have gone into more detail than you need, but many people experience similar problems so this post might help them as well. Try what I suggest and if you have any probs then come back here and we can resolve them.

[Dave]

I have been making a number of recipe texts and each time I save them I have to go thru the process of telling Writer where to save the file.

Top menu: Tools/Options/OpenOffice.org/Paths

Choose My Documents. Double click and change the directory to where you want it. I don't save on the hard drive personally.

David.

[TerryE]

I don't save on the hard drive personally.

Dave, I personally think that you're making a mistake here because the MTBFs of USB sticks are a lot lower than modern HDDs, and you can get probs with loose connectors which (particularly in the case of laptops) cause the mount to drop and you can get write corruptions.

I would suggest that you keep your primary copy on your HDD and regularly synch your files to a USB stick or second computer/remote file service, so that you have two separate copies of your work. There are a number of good freeware and shareware replication packages available.

[Dave]

Thanks. I actually use both ..sometime all three. What I don't do is partition or keep data on the same drive as the OS, which can, and does crash. I have two HDs, master and slave. From past experience, and an experimental curiosity, I have only one thumbscrew on each outer panel of the computer for easy removal. Only yesterday I spent the better part of the day redoing and reinstalling everything for the local priest's computer from FDISK. That followed a virus attack that left 8Mb of garbage and apparent space on a 20Mb drive; not my first effort by a long shot. Of course, he lost anything and everything he had not stored elsewhere; once again not a new experience for me to observe. My advice has always been, and remains, "Save, save, save, here AND there." He thinks I'm destined for sainthood, but he could be quite wrong.

David.