Most people don't know about open/save dialog box extenders, which is shame since these little programs can make your life a lot easier. They work in the background and improve the functionality of the common Microsoft Windows open and save dialog boxes that are used from nearly every program. You might not have given much thought to those built in dialogs, but the simple truth is that they suck. After spending a few days with the programs below we think you'll probably agree with us that you couldn't live without one.
The main thing a dialog box extender does is let you expand the size of the dialogs, change to a different view mode (like details mode), and keep a list of favorite and recent folders you can easily navigate to.
This is not a category where one single program stands out clearly above the rest, and we recommend you try out any that sound appealing to you - this is probably one of those categories where you may viscerally respond well to some better than others. However we did identify three utilities that we thought had the best combination of features:
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Direct Folders (some nice special features)
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Filebox Extender (very clean and simple and stable)
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File-Ex (different approach using combo boxes, great file finder)
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XFilesDialog (lots of buttons if that suits you; great per-application settings)
We think that the open source program DM2 has great potential to in this category in the long term, but is currently not suitable as an alternative to the shareware programs.
Download: Dialog Extenders Softwares
Credit: http://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/DialogExtenders/index.html
WHAT IS AN OPEN/SAVE DIALOG EXTENDER?
In nearly every program you use on your computer, when you save and open a file, you encounter the Microsoft Open/Save Dialog. You may not have given this dialog much thought, but that the fact that you interact with it so often means that even the minor inconveniences can add up over time to major annoyances.
Over the years a number of special utilities have emerged that run in the background (usually living in your system tray), and when they see an open/save/browse dialog pop up, they quickly hook into it and "extend" or "improve it" in a variety of ways.
The most common things done are to enlarge the dialog, sort the entries, and switch into an alternate display mode (many of us like details mode).
Perhaps most importantly, these dialogs can also keep track of recent folders and a list of your favorite folders, and make these available from an easy menu, letting you jump directly to these folders from the open/save dialogs.
This ability, to quickly navigate to recent and favorite folders, can be a life saver if you are the kind of person who keeps their files organized into nice hierarchies.
Some of the tools are minimalist in terms of what they add to the dialogs, and some are more elaborate; which you prefer may depend on your aesthetic preferences.
original vs. extended (sample using filebox extender)
FEATURES WE CARE ABOUT
Here are the features we consider most important for a good open/save dialog extender
- Stability - has to work on modern and older dialogs, and not crash any programs; and has to reliably alter the dialogs without switching into inappropriate views.
- It should adjust folder-only browse dialogs as well.
- Needs to be able to change default mode (into details for example).
- Needs to be able to change size of dialog.
- Should be aesthetically pleasing and not overly obtrusive.
- Needs to present list of recent files and folders.
- Needs to present list of favorite folders, and user should be able to customize this list easily.
- Should be easy to add current folder to favorites.
- Needs to work in some tricky cases like Microsoft Office.
- Ability to specify applications to ignore would be nice.
Download: Dialog Extenders Softwares
Another Software: http://www.southbaypc.com/AutoSizer/
Credit: http://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/DialogExtenders/index.html