Using command-D to go to the Desktop

Wow, I think I touched a nerve 🙂

When I added the Duplicate command in Default Folder X 4.6.5, I took the opportunity to update the command keys to follow what Apple currently does in the OS X Finder. In the Finder, cmd-shift-D goes to the Desktop and cmd-D is used for the Duplicate command. Everyone will want things to be consistent between the Finder and the Open/Save dialogs, right?

WRONG

We’ve gotten a lot of hate mail from Default Folder X users in the last 24 hours, asking (with various levels of politeness) why we changed their workflow. Umm – cohesiveness of user interface? OK, maybe not, then. Since this change has made a lot of people angry, I’ve removed cmd-D from the duplicate command and made it so both cmd-D and cmd-shift-D  take you to the Desktop, and re-released Default Folder X 4.6.5. To get this change, just re-download Default Folder X and reinstall it.

For those of you that actually want command-D to invoke the Duplicate command like it does in the Finder, you’re going to have to suffer with a little dissonance in your user experience. Sorry about that.

10 Responses to “Using command-D to go to the Desktop”

  1. To be fair, I’ve used Shift-Command-D myself for years when I recently realized it wasn’t the official shortcut to go to the Desktop in the Open/Save dialogs. I had used it for so long it had never crossed my mind.
    Actually (without Default Folder), the shortcut doesn’t take you to the desktop in some other applications (try the nightly builds of HandBrake for instance) where it serves other purposes.

    I am now trying to “re-educate” myself into using Command-D instead of Command-Shift-D now 🙂

  2. Eurobubba says:

    Any hope of at least a hidden preference setting? I’m all about the consistency, baby.

  3. Craig says:

    Thanks for addressing this “issue”. I’m not surprised that you got a lot of email. Command D to save to the desktop is a little addictive. : )

    Best!
    Craig

  4. Joe Streno says:

    Thanks for listening! 🙂 The reality is, Apple has always used Command-D as Duplicate in applications and the Finder, but has always used Command-D in open and save dialogs to go to the Desktop. It’s one of those things that is engrained in my motor reflexes, my Mac DNA. Plus if you look at Apple’s own Keyboard Shortcut Support Page … you will see they list it this way too.

    Command-D:
    Selects the Desktop folder in Open and Save dialogs
    or
    Selects “Don’t Save” in dialogs that contain a Don’t Save button, in Mac OS X v10.6.8 and earlier

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

    Yeah … it may not SEEM logical … but it’s what we’ve known forever.

    Thanks for the quick response.

  5. Blake McCormick says:

    Thank you for the revision!

  6. Jay says:

    This was driving me nuts for the last week! I though Apple changed something in their System Preferences and finally realized via the sidebar menu in DFX that command-D had been reassigned. Why?

    I use command-D a lot to get to the desktop. It’s much faster using one hand to command-D than to use two hands to command-shift-D.

    Thanks for listening to your users and changing this back. I’m going to re-download the latest version to get my command-D back.

  7. dev says:

    removing the Duplicate command, that is great, thanks, the error is with Apple in changing something as engrained as cmd-D to cmd-shift-D in the first place. Maybe they had to, one command for two things may give a mess at one point.

    I never want to save where OSX thinks I want to save (this is why I have DFX), so cmd-d is as automatic as cmd-s and now it duplicates the Documents folder and hangs because hard drive is out of space, no surprise.

    I had tried to overrun the command in the systems prefs, but that had changed it for the finder too, and then I could not duplicate single files any more. (I use duplicate a lot too)

    I’m not angry.

    How would I force quit DFX? It doesnt show in the Force Quit menu. Even Activity Monitor showed only the list of processses within the DFX window, and no access to the quit button.

    • Jon says:

      You should be able to force-quit Default Folder X from Activity Monitor, if necessary. If Default Folder X’s bezel is covering up part of Activity Monitor’s window, you can type a process’ name to select it and use cmd-option-Q to bring up the Quit / Force Quit window.

  8. dev says:

    ok, thanks!

  9. Kris Hunt says:

    > The reality is, Apple … has always used Command-D in open and save dialogs to go to the Desktop.

    Wrong. Before Lion, Apple used Command-D to select Don’t Save. I would actually prefer that it still did this. I rarely save things to the Desktop.

    I can’t imagine why you would think people would want to duplicate files while opening or saving another file within an Open/Save dialog window. Common sense trumps consistency here.

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