Save As / File Open dialog boxes too large to use on laptop

Question

I have a Macbook Air and am using one of the new Apple LED Cinema Displays, although this problem was also present when I was using my older Apple Studio Display.
The problem is that some of the system dialog boxes, notably File Open and Save As are huge when I am just using my Macbook with no external screen. They are so big i cant see the lower right drag handle and make them smaller and cant access buttons at the bottom like "New Folder".
I think this is because I resized the dialog box when I last had my large external monitor connected and now that it is not connected (I'm at home on holiday not at work) I cant find a way to make them reset to their normal size.
Does anyone know anything that would help? I've had a good search online and also in these forums and havent found anything - but apologies if I've missed an existing open thread.
Thanks,
Glenn.

Answer 1

This did not work for me - and in my case it was the "Export" Save As sheet in Keynote. There is a real solution for this problem. Firstly all user 'preferences' and these are things that include not only preferences set in the application's preferences window but also window position, size, recent items etc. are stored in the preferences .plist file for an application (stored in the users account Library folder) . If an application starts to behave strangely, crashes on start etc. deleting this file while the application is NOT running can often fix a problem. So if a window is in an unusual location or partially off-screen then trashing the file often will fix the problem (BTW - if you are unsure how to find the file activate the Finder and select the "GO" menu -> "Go to Folder" and type ~/Library/Preferences - make sure you are not in the System's preferences folder - deleting these items is typically bad...). Preference files for an application are typically named com.companyname.programname.plist. So for Keynote the plist is com.apple.keynote.plist. Preferences are recreated when the application is launched. Often though this is a bit extreme. If you double click a plist file the "Property List Editor" application will start (at least if you have the developers tools installed - all free and on the Leopard DVD - with a free Apple Developer ID you can also run the most up to date version pre-snow leopard). In the plist editor all of the various options available in the program are listed - ones from the preference panel and other application information. In the case of Keynote (possibly other apps - I haven't checked) the NSNavPanelExpandedSizeForSaveMode key stores the size of the Save/Save As sheet. I downsized from a 17" MBP to a 15" MBP and the string size for this was 682 wide by 843 tall in pixels - my screen is only 900 px and once you consider the space needed for the application menu bar and tool bar the dialog buttons were 'just' barely visible - tauntingly so. I dropped the height to 743, saved the plist and reopened Keynote (remember to edit these while the application is not running - and always save a copy first before editing the file). This worked for me perfectly and unlike other suggestions here provides precision control. Now having said that 1) these files are XML and can be edited using a text editor but the plist editor is much prettier; 2) typically the keys are named using their appropriate Coca names for the property - but each developer can and does write their own code often deviating from Coca - hmm MS, Adobe come to mind - so remember that its good to read through the plist and Google to make sure that you are editing the correct information; 3) plists are automatically recreated if you really screw-up and need to delete - unfortunately in doing so Word will forget that no-one actually likes "when editing automatically select the whole word" so you will need to redo all of those kinds of preference tweaks.
D.