OSX saves INVISIBLE FILES by default..??

Question

I am saving files to my desktop, and THEY'RE NOT SHOWING UP! WHERE THE H#II ARE THEY??
If i go to OPEN in the file menu of any program (textedit, safari, IE, etc) the files are there, yet they're not visible on the desktop.
This is absolutely incredible. Do you wonder why so many people HATE OSX? I NEVER had this happen in OS9.

Answer 1

If all of this issue is based on over-loading the Finder (in OS X this is not
the versatile super desktop it was under OS 9.2.2) then you should think
about doing something along the lines of what I do with anything that may
be of interest to me, while in my main daily user account...
On the root level of the hard disk drive, I have a folder; in this, are other
nested folders where items I have saved: including web page URLs not
bookmarked in a browser (saved to desktop by dragging out of browser),
miscellaneous images, text, documents - to include .PDFs of web pages,
and other items, by kind. These are all in one folder, I put an alias on
the desktop in my user account; then to see all of this junk, I double-click
on the alias and presto: the junk bin of my organized saved stuff, opens.
I've randomly named this, Misc Extras folder; where other folders reside.
If I want to access some single saved item for awhile, temporarily, from
it, I may make an alias to that item, and put that on the desktop so I can
open it. I have an Apple Support tech .PDF file's alias out where I can
read through the dozens of pages; when done, I can trash the alias from
the desktop. The real file is hidden in the main folder. I may have up to 5
icons on the desktop at one time; one is the Mac HDD. Others are items
I am using this week.
{Since I edit digital images somewhat manually on the desktop, I keep it
mostly empty of extra debris; and do not use iPhoto to handle images.
So, every item is manually dated and rotated, saved, resized, in folders.
And they do not stay on the desktop; they are organized in dated folders.
Later on, these image folders are organized in a final fashion and burned
to a few DVDs, then get them all off the computer's hard disk drive.}
And on first blush, one folder opens to show folders. I can organize each of
them according to the View, icon size, Kind, Date, etc. This helps keep track.
Also, for extra applications and utilities that I may not want to keep an
icon link to in the Dock, I have an Saved Alias folder of aliases to those
apps or utilities I may want faster access to; instead of opening Apps
Folder from the hard disk drive. This folder also hides in the hard disk
drive, and perhaps even inside the same folder where all that desktop
junk bin stuff also hides. By dragging this Saved Alias folder into the
Dock, near the Trash can, a link to that folder stays in there. So, I do
not have Aliases to Apps on the Desktop, they are tidy in a folder, too.
The Dock is already full enough; with some extra stuff stuck in there.
Since I started organizing junk on the desktop back in OS6.0, this was
not a hard leap for me to keep doing what worked. What made me re-
think about keeping up on this idea was having seen other OS X users
whose desk space was cluttered and not even organized by alphabet,
size, kind or anything. Just over-lapping icons with no organization.
And these persons complained about the slow acting Finder desktop
window in OS X. Yet failed to act on advice to clean up the cause of it.
So, if organizing the desktop in OS X helps, and you keep track of
where the stuff ends up, that would be good. Some kinds of ideas
will only work well in the one user account; other ideas should work
in other user accounts too; but there may be ownership issues, then.
This is a little different than files just disappearing; or being saved as
invisible, by default. These items are categories apart, actually.
You can Force-Quit the Finder and relaunch it, that will refresh it;
but if there are dozens or hundreds of items stored there, that is
only a temporary shuffle and the answer is to organize it elsewhere.
And reasonable periodic and general maintenance, with the idea of
doing so as prevention, could help the issue you face with Finder
and files going missing. Maybe a bit more than 'repair disk' and a
'repair disk permissions' or SafeBoot, run Disk Utility's permission
repair and restart. Things such as AppleJack &/or OnyX can help.
Plus keeping track of remaining drive free-space. To archive stuff
off the computer's internal hard drive, to an external; to backup.
Good luck & happy computing!
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