Hey guys, Looking to tweak Blender again, this time it’s simple saving. So, when you type in a filename you have to hit Enter twice. This behavior goes against the grain with the universal standard of immediately saving when hitting Enter in the filename textbox. For the Blender evangelicals… whether you like it or not, people have learned this behaviour and expect their programs to act in this fashion. Is there anyway of changing this behaviour? I can imagine plenty of newbies getting caught out by this simple oversight and wondering why some of their saves didn’t take.
Claiming some of the saves “didn’t take” isn’t even remotely accurate. You’re talking about the saving files in the file browser. You hit enter once, and the window doesn’t just go away. You can still click cancel, but that would indicate you want to cancel. Yes it is one more keypress than in some other programs, and you might find that annoying, but the window doesn’t just go away without either saving or canceling.
Actually, I’ve seen the same thing happen in a standard Windows dialog in applications such as Photoshop… unless you accept the default filename.
Which universal standard? I use programs other than Blender that require confirmations. If what you were talking about needed some special training or a large amount of time to counteract, I’d agree with you. But it doesn’t require either. I assume that’s why the facility to change it doesn’t exist.
If your arguments are reasoned and logical then they should speak for themselves. When someone disagrees with you they aren’t automatically wrong, or “evangelical”. It’s only when they hold onto an argument, in the face of pure reason or logic, that you could consider their responses irrational. Most of the arguments that have brought these silly factions into being, seem to be opinion based.
Also, the options are few in the save dialog, but when importing or exporting, that window is chock full of options that have to be right. That extra keypress, and yes I do recognize it is an extra keypress, causes one to think about what they’re doing.
Again, it’s only in that file browser dialog. Pick ‘Save…’ from the file menu and it just saves. Hit Ctrl-S and an “are you sure” prompt pops up, just like in other programs. In fact, that is the weak point in the file save workflow. Because if you move your pointer away from the prompt, it disappears, and a newbie might think it saved when it didn’t.
I agree. That’s something that could be changed. It’d be better if it stayed where it was until confirmed. But I still don’t find it enough of an issue to expend energy on. I think Blender could do with many changes in certain areas. But I don’t think they’re going to come from this site specifically. Certainly not from the many arguments we engage in here.
I think including labels or insults in a post where you’re asking for assistance, is counter productive though. A lot of bashing can be avoided if people just ask their question and leave it at that. 
This has not been my experience. In practically all programs that I have used, pressing Ctrl-S saves with no prompt, except if the file hasn’t yet been saved for the first time, in which case a dialog comes up asking for a filename.
I can’t think of any programs where Ctrl-S prompts to save (besides Blender 
).
As an aside, is it possible to set the Ctrl-S shortcut to the same action that File > Save does (i. e. without a prompt)? I have tried and cannot find a way.
Point taken dunawayc. In other programs, I generally poke the save button in the toolbar. Either way, it only goes to enforce my point, that if we’re going to talk about people possibly losing their work, ctrl-s is the weak spot, and not an extra enter in the file window.
Blender does a ton of things different than other programs, but if you look back at where Blender came from, I think it’s pretty decent. I realize here the OP was looking for a way around the second enter in the file dialog, and that is kind of refreshing. You’re around here enough to know that so many post are folks whining that an extra keypress has somehow ruined their day. That Maya or Max is smart, and Blender is dumb. Some people just want to be butt hurt over a free program, and though I’m not a true Blender purist, I do tend to push back against it. It’s a free program, built mainly by enthusiasts, and it doesn’t owe anything to anybody. If it’s not enough like the program you’re used to… go back to what you’re used to.
This isn’t a frustrating thread. But I’ve seen so many frustrating threads, it’s easy to get defensive. 
EDIT: as to your question about getting Ctrl-S to not prompt. I don’t know. I just played with it a bit, and it seems strange. It calls wm.save_mainfile but seems to know if you used the shortcut or not.
if you enter…
import bpy
bpy,ops.wm.save_mainfile()
…into a text window, and run script it just saves with no prompt.
In the shortcut setup there’s an option “Check Existing”. Shut that off and still the prompt asks “Save Over?” So obviously is is still checking if the file exists. It’s kind of backwards.
Darn… I tried to preempt the evangelicals with this post and seem to attract more!
I’ve been lurking on the forums for months now, and unfortunately this fits into a similar type of response I’ve seen all over the Blender community. Defend, defend, defend!
First time I’ve seen ‘go back to what your used to’ tho. Way to help the community and spread the good news of Blender!
Just because Blender is free does not mean it’s immune to criticism. Don’t take it personal guys, I just wanted to know if there was a way to change this…oh and while I’m here, Blender should also default the keyboard cursor to overwriting the filename box when using save as!
That’s just basic GUI design guys, it seems like an oversight and apparently there isn’t any fix. It would be nice if it was included as it would help standardize workflow.
The ctrl+s prompt does not make much sense to me either (and I’m one to often defend Blender’s design paradigms), but the fact that textfields need an explicit keypress (enter or esc) to exit the typing context is brilliant design - how many times have I unwillingly saved a file in Maya because I hit enter to navigate the folders ? (not sure which one you are talking about though)
wesker1984, please note. My post was positive about how you were approaching the problem. The comment ‘go back to what you’re used to’ was specifically targeted toward people who were mad about how the program functions, and demanding fixes we are not able to provide. Nobody here can fix the basic operation of the file browser dialog. If you really want it to change, the forum over at Blender.org might be a better place to complain. Blenderartists.org is a community of users, not developers. Complaining about it here, is just complaining, and will most probably not lead to a fix.
EDIT: And understand, I’m not an ‘evangelical’, I’m a realist. I agree that the file dialog should be more standards oriented, but I don’t think the extra enter is one of the most pressing problems Blender faces.