I used to run a macintosh SE on i guess version 6 of Mac OS several
years back.
It had a great little shareware (?) program called Boomerang that
ensured that you could always easily get back to the most recently
opened folder (ie directory) that you were using.
For example if you opened a document in MS Word when you next opened a
document in MS Word , the open dialogue would automatically bring up
that directory as the first one you might wish to choose from.
I am not sure if this infact persisted regardless of which application
program you opened from - i think it did so if you then went into
Excel it would offer the directory you last used in Word. Maybe it was
really clever and allowed you to choose whether it remembered across
applications or not

Likewise i believe a similar effect applied for the File > Save
dialogue

With windows i find that some programs do this and some don't. 

I want a replacement program that will work with Win98 and does the
same thing. ie for saving and opening files the directory that shows
up first is the one i most recently used in that program (and or other
programs)

I emailed the guy that wrote Boomerang a few years ago and he said
that he was not developing a windows product - he was based in finland
if i remember correctly. 

Answers i do NOT want (things i already know) :
I know that there is the "documents" option in the start bar but it
doesn't really do what i am talking about. I also know that the most
recently opened documents appear in the open file list of many
programs. I know that i can set up excel and word etc to look in a
specific default directory of my choosing.

Answers i MIGHT want as part of the solution:
I know that SOME programs do this automatically - why do some do it
and others not ? Can i change it so they all do it. Why are there
differences eg in Outlook express 5 if i save an attachment the File
Save option defaults somewhere useless like my desktop whereas the
File Save attachments option defaults in a boomerang like way but then
i can't change the file name from the original or else i can't add a
new directory from that dialogue (sorry can't remember exactly but
know it is annoying).
Perhaps there is a simple solution using windows itself - have i
missed the point about the options for navigating the "file > open "
dialogue ? As I have not sat down and read the manual for win98.
The fact that no one else has asked for this and the Mac Boomerang guy
is not developing a windows version suggests to me that you can do
this already in Windows. I think i am missing something..obvious ..am
i ? Cause I don't get why noone else wants this boomerang program for
windows and yet none of the people i know that use PC's i a fairly
skilled way seem to know how to do this.

Answer I REALLY want:
Please can researcher provide the URL to a shareware or freeware
program that does what boomerang used to do but for my windows98 pc?


thanks !

---

Clarification of Question by onetwothreefour-ga on 13 Jun 2002 16:57 PDT

for researchers not sure what boomerang does - go to 1992 (!) article
<a href="http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-152.html">http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-152.html</a> and search for the
word boomerang
it mentions the commercial version and super boomerang (SB) which
seems to do more. looks like the writer was japanese not from finland
sorry ! 

A quick information from the "developer side". You can use APIs
(Application Programming Interfaces), since you don't want to program
all the nitty gritty details of these everyday dialogs. This also
ensures the end-user faces streamlined dialogs. Now... there's e.g.
different versions of your average "Open file..." dialog, and when the
behavior of those changes from one version to another, the program
using this or that component adapts that behavior. I'm still using
completely outdated versions of some Shareware programs simply for the
reason they provide what you describe as Boomerang functionality
(because they use now outdated default behaviors of those modules),
which I find very helpful.

But now, good luck to you and the researcher who can actually help
solving the problem!

I have the software you need:
pc: "FileBox eXtender" can be found at www.hyperionics.com
macintosh: "Default Folder" can be found at www.stclairsoft.com

filebox extender looks good 
i'd like a chance to evaluate it before closing out this question
i am away until tuesday eve now so may not get a chance before then
apologies for delay in closing question

I note that it states "FileBox further enhances Windows by adding
several advanced functions to the standard Open File and Save File
dialog boxes. (Note that if a program uses its own "private" dialog
boxes for these functions, you won't see our FileBox buttons, sorry.)
"
so perhaps this will mean it won't work with my private programs - I
am wondering which programs are "private" style. The main progs i need
it to work with are outlook express, word, excel, dreamweaver, adobe
acrobat, IE5

ps sadly the mac software is not relevant as i am not on mac anymore
(boohoo)

ps  verbatim
i see you have posted as a comment so i presume you will not earn cash
if i close out question ?
would you like to post this  as an answer ?

You don't need to use the Open dialog at all in the apps you mention.

Bring up a Windows Explorer window (there are 100 ways to do it, such
as double-clicking "My Computer"), navigate to the folder with your
files, and then either drag the files from there into your application
or double-click them. This has many advantages, for example that if
you're working with Word files and suddenly need to open an Excel file
in the same folder you can just double-click it, instead of starting
Excel and navigating file-open again.

It's a matter of personal preference, but I like to set up the
Explorer to look like the file-open dialog. That is to turn off the
web-view and use Overview instead of Large icons.