The default Open and Save dialogs included by default in macOS don’t have too many customization options. Default Folder X is a small utility that can help you personalize the entire experience by adding new locations, Spotlight tags, comments, and many more options.

Access favorite folders from the status bar and create your own folders lists
The Default Folder X status bar menu offers you the possibility to navigate to your default, favorite, and recent folders. At the same time, the menu also allows you to view all opened Finder windows and bring any of them forward.

The Default Folder X preferences can be adjusted via a Preferences Pane that will be added to your Systems Preferences. Here you can add specific directories to be used by default with certain applications. Furthermore, you can create your own Favorite Folders list.

Open and Save toolbar
If Default Folder X is running, each time you want to save or open a file in an macOS native  utility, the application will add a toolbar that provides all these options in a more easily accessible manner.

To navigate between the different menus, simply put your mouse on top of them. However, you can also make use of the keyboard shortcuts assigned by default to frequently used functions.

Integrated Spotlight and QuickLook options
To make sure that you can always find your files as fast as possible, Default Folder X enables you to add Spotlight keywords, tags, comments, or labels within the Save dialog.

On the other hand, when you are opening files, Default Folder X allows you to preview the documents in a thumbnail and even zoom to full size.

Intuitive solution for customizing the default Save and Open dialog
Default Folder X is proposing simple solutions for personalizing your experience when opening or saving files. The app is focused on efficiency and will certainly improve your workflow.

What's New:

Version 6.2.3:

• Open Finder windows are now included in Quick Search results.
• Added icons to the About, Settings, Quick Start, Help and other menu items on Tahoe.
• Eliminated delays in Open and Save dialogs when switching between folders or automatically selecting the last opened file.
• Default Folder X's "QuickSearch" AppleScript verb takes a folder as a parameter so you can search only the contents of that folder.
• Worked around a bug in macOS 26.1 and later that resulted in the path menu in Open and Save dialogs not updating, the Quick Search keyboard shortcut not working reliably, and the list of Finder windows not updating after a window was closed.
• The "Open With" menu will only offer apps located in your Applications folders unless you turn on a checkbox in the Additional Settings (hold down the Option key while choosing Settings).
• You can change the font size of Default Folder X's menus using the Terminal command "defaults write com.stclairsoft.DefaultFolderX5 menuFontSize 16".
• Tracking of recent files works correctly in Java apps when you select a file using a native macOS Open dialog.
• The Recent Files menu will show all recent files in Open dialogs presented by Keyboard Maestro macros.
• Re-enabled the ability to set a minimum size for Open dialogs in the Additional Settings.
• Fixed debug logging so it works correctly on macOS Tahoe.

Screenshots:

• 
• 
•