Direct Folders

Direct Folders (by Code Sector) is one of the best dialog extender programs that I have come across. Dialog extenders are programs that modify the “Save as” and “Open” dialogs in Windows programs and make them much more productive and efficient. Most of the common features in these types of programs are:

• Resize the dialog windows so you can see much more.
• Set up some kind of “favorites” folders for folders used often.
• Automatically keep track of recently used folders.

Direct Folders can do all of these things, but it also has a few really cool features that makes it my favorite. First of all, I should mention that Direct Folders is freeware (and there’s a Pro version that adds a couple of nice features, but not critical). The feature I love the most about Direct Folders is being able to double-click in any blank area of a dialog and having the folder navigation menu pop-up underneath the mouse. From there, you can pick the folder you want to jump to. I don’t think any other dialog extender offers that convenient feature.

You can also set up your favorite folders quite easily. There’s even the option to have an alternate location for each entry in the list. For example, let’s say I am working on something called “Project 1″ and it has two main folders for database files and document files. I can set the regular click to go to one folder, but the Shift-Click will go to the other folder. Very handy to keep the clutter down in the list. See the options below:

Of course, Direct Folders also keeps track of recently used folders and files. Furthermore, it keeps a separate section for recent folders for the particular program you’re using, and a global recent folders for folders from all applications. (The Pro version extends this a little bit further.)

There was in-depth review done on several of these dialog extenders at donationcoder (which graciously hosts this site). Please read it to find out about all the nitty-gritty details of this program and many others.

Everyone needs to get this program, or something similar. Life without a dialog extender is like a twinkie without the filling.

One thing that needs mentioning: on certain dialogs, these programs may not work properly. Programs that have their own custom dialog boxes will not work properly with most dialog extenders. A good example are Microsoft Office applications which have their own Office dialog boxes. Fortunately, since Office is pretty much everywhere, any decent programmer will specifically make sure their extender can handle Office dialogs. Direct Folders, of course, can do it fine. In fact, do not even consider an extender that can’t handle the Office dialogs. Personally, I have yet to find a program that can handle the AutoCAD dialogs, which sucks, because it gets annoying for my job. There are some programs out there that have tried to come up with creative ways to handle some of these special dialogs, but none of them have worked well for me. An interesting one is File-Ex, which allows the user to “train” special dialogs to work with the program. But, it didn’t work well for me and AutoCAD. I’ll be sticking to Direct Folders for now.

Pro features (paid version)
The Pro version of Direct Folders adds some luxurious features. I say “luxurious” because even without these features, the program is still my preferred dialog extender. One of the more practical pro features is the ability to individually set a “home” folder for each application. Another nice feature is a bar that appears above the dialog windows that shows the full path of the folder your in, and you can navigate quickly to other folders by clicking on the path or its roots (like in Directory Opus). The most trivial pro feature is the ability to add custom icons to the folders shown. No big deal, but fun. The full list of pro features is on the web site.

Personal note:
Before using Direct Folders, I used to use a program called XFilesDialog. It was also a decent program, and I liked how it had a ton of options. In the end, I switched to Direct Folders mainly because of that really cool double-click feature. I love that. You can’t beat that. Overall, I also enjoy the interface of Direct Folders a little more. The settings and layout are simpler and I think more appealing to casual users. And you can’t ignore the fact that it is free.