How to make Pages default to the folder of the opened file when exporting a PDF version?

Question

I regularly create documents in Pages, then convert them to a PDF using File → Export. I always save the PDF versions in the same folder as the original document.

This save dialog that opens always seems to remember the latest location that I saved to. However, for me it would be much more useful if it just assumed I want to save to the same directory as the original file.

How can I make Pages do this?

Answer 1

There is a fantastic app called Default Folder X – but it's not cheap – around US$35. It enables a plethora of features that you can use in the Open/Save dialog of any app.

On the free side, you could try this trick: when you are in the dialog window for Exporting, you can actually drag a file from the Finder into the Export window, and it will automatically change to that same folder. This at least saves you from having to navigate around in the dialog window, since you are likely to have the window for the folder of the original document already open in Finder.

Finally, just in case you didn't already know, the little pop-up at the top of most Open/Save/Export dialog windows lists your 5 most "Recent Places" at the bottom. So if you used "Open..." to open a file, that folder will likely appear in this list.

E.g.:

Answer 2

Believe or not, this flaw is the #1 time waster for me in my day to day work. To get the default export folder to be the same folder as the source file, I ended up making AppleScripts and embedding them in services using Automator. I did this for pdf and Word exports in Pages, pdf and Excel in Numbers, and pdf, PowerPoint, and png in Keynote.

Attaching the code below--for each, you need to create a new "Quick Action" (service) in Automator, add a "Run AppleScript" step, set it to receive no input, and set it to work in the specific app for the script. You need to save each service under a different name (e.g. "Pages Export to pdf", "Keynote Export to PowerPoint", etc.) since even when made specific to an app services are global. As an optional last step I assigned keyboard shortcuts to them in each app (System Preferences → Keyboard → ...). Note if you do this you probably need to assign the shortcuts at the app level, not at the service level, since service shortcuts apparently cannot be duplicated.

Disclaimer I'm not exactly amazing at Applescript so these might not be perfect--but they seem to work well enough for me.

Default Folder X seems like nice software but it does much more than just fix this one flaw, so it's a bit overkill. And if you don't want the rest of what it does, you can't disable that but still have it solve this problem.

Apple should fix this properly.

tell application "Pages"
    set exportFile to file of front document as text
    set exportFile to text 1 thru -6 of exportFile
    set exportFile to exportFile & "pdf"
    export front document to file exportFile as PDF with properties {image quality:Best}
end tell
tell application "Finder"
    activate
    reveal exportFile
end tell


tell application "Pages"
    set exportFile to file of front document as text
    set exportFile to text 1 thru -6 of exportFile
    set exportFile to exportFile & "docx"
    export front document to file exportFile as Microsoft Word
end tell
tell application "Finder"
    activate
    reveal exportFile
end tell


tell application "Numbers"
    set exportFile to file of front document as text
    set exportFile to text 1 thru -8 of exportFile
    set exportFile to exportFile & "pdf"
    export front document to file exportFile as PDF with properties {image quality:Best}
end tell
tell application "Finder"
    activate
    reveal exportFile
end tell


tell application "Numbers"
    set exportFile to file of front document as text
    set exportFile to text 1 thru -8 of exportFile
    set exportFile to exportFile & "xlsx"
    export front document to file exportFile as Microsoft Excel
end tell
tell application "Finder"
    activate
    reveal exportFile
end tell


tell application "Keynote"
    set exportFile to file of front document as text
    set exportFile to text 1 thru -4 of exportFile
    set exportFile to exportFile & "pdf"
    export front document to file exportFile as PDF with properties {PDF image quality:Best}
end tell
tell application "Finder"
    activate
    reveal exportFile
end tell


tell application "Keynote"
    set exportFile to file of front document as text
    set exportFile to text 1 thru -4 of exportFile
    set exportFile to exportFile & "pptx"
    export front document to file exportFile as Microsoft PowerPoint
end tell
tell application "Finder"
    activate
    reveal exportFile
end tell


tell application "Keynote"
    set exportFile to file of front document as text
    set exportFile to text 1 thru -5 of exportFile
    export front document to file exportFile as slide images with properties {image format:PNG}
end tell
tell application "Finder"
    activate
    reveal exportFile
end tell

Answer 3

I use two workarounds:

1. Before each project, I use Finder to create a shortcut in the sidebar for the folder I'm working on. This makes finding it much faster within all dialog boxes, regardless of the app I'm using.

2. Within Pages, you can expand the dialog box, and there is a search bar – search for the name of your folder, double-click on it to select, and export/save.