Saving always goes to documents folder

Question

Hello,
I've posted this problem before but haven't received a fix for it yet. Perhaps I'm just explaining it wrong. Simply put every time I go to save a document, instead of going to the last folder used in the program it always goes to the documents folder of the user. Also the last folder does not even show up in the drop down of the save window, only the path to the documents folder. The various programs do remember recent documents opened. But the "open file" always goes to documents, not last folder. This was not always the case, but has been for the last 6months or so and I can't seem to correct it.
I've tested the system by adding a new account and seeing if it happen there also or if it is just the one account. But the same situation exists, so it seems to be universal to this computer.
Based on previous threads this is what I've attempted so far:
Deleted in: (myhome)/Library/Preferences
com.apple.finder.plist
com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
com.apple.launchservices.plist
com.adobe.xxxx.plist
com.macromedia.xxxx.plist
ALSO Deleted : /library/caches/com.applelaunchservices-xxxx.csstore (all)
Then restarted computer. This however has not resolved the problem. I know all the work arounds of "put folder in sidebar" and what not, but that doesn't fix the problem. I want to fix this problem.
thanks
mark

Answer 1

I don't know what else you can do, nor why dialogs aren't working correctly. The Open and Save dialogs in most applications are now handled by Apple's Navigation Services, although developers can add some custom things to this basic arrangement. See this article:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Carbon/Conceptual/ProvidingNavigationDi alogs/nsxconcepts/chapter_2_section2.html
Note especially this paragraph:
"...two types of dialogs can appear—a minimal Save dialog and a full Save dialog. The minimal Save dialog, shown in Figure 1-2, is displayed the first time a user saves a document in an application. This dialog provides a text field for the user to enter a filename. Applications can optionally specify a default filename to display. The dialog has a Where pop-up menu that, by default, suggests the Documents folder for the user. The user can open the pop-up menu to choose from locations previously set in the Finder sidebar or a recently-visited location. If none of those locations are acceptable, the user can click the disclosure button to the right of the text field to access the full Save dialog."
AFAIK the user choices made are then saved to the application's plist file. A list of Recent Items is also written to the com.apple.finder.plist and to the com.apple.recentitems.plist. So if you tossed those two plist files and the application's plist file, plus the sidebar plist for good measure you should get back to the default state. You would then open a dialog, expand it to full navigation view, pick new stuff, and these changes would be written to the respective plists. If this is not happening--if the plists are not being written to--I'm afraid I don't know what else you could do.
If you've never created a test user you might do so (in System Prefs/Acconts), log in to the test user and do some opening and saving (remember you will be at the default of the simple window with the Documents as the usual default). After you've done some open and save actions see if the test user now works correctly, with your actions remembered when you go back after a logout/in. If that is the case, then there is something odd going on in your regular account.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder