Can Save to Desktop But Can't see it

dsperber said:

what about my request for a screenshot taken at the very end of the "save as..." dialog, just before you're about to push save or ok or whatever?

This is that moment when the complete path to the target folder (presumably one of the "desktop" folders) would be shown at the top in the address bar, so you can see exactly where it is going?

Presumably, that is also where you should then be able to find it. And if not (as you say), well at least we'll know exactly where it should have been stored.

porkr said:

What state are you in when you do this SAVE? What program? Not a browser?

You say "I downloaded a PDF and saved it to my desktop", so I assumed you were using a browser like Firefox or IE, to do either (a) "save link as..." before actually downloading it, or (b) "save page as..." after downloading it. But your screenshot suggests you are in some program other than a browser.

The top of this "save in" dialog shown in your screenshot suggests you are in some program, but I don't know what. Are you somehow in Acrobat Reader directly? I'm puzzled.

In particular, your screenshot doesn't show the Win7 address bar with the full expanded path to the target location I was expecting to see... again, suggesting some other situation from some other program when you started the "save" dialog. Instead, there are the major category buttons on the left side, again suggesting a dialog from some program other than a browser.

What program or state are you in when you start your "save" dialog??

For example, here is what it looks like for me when I do a "save page as..." from a tab in which a PDF has been downloaded/opened within Firefox:



Alternatively, if I right-click on the PDF link in the original web page while in Firefox and then choose "save link as...", I get a slightly different but obviously similar "save" dialog:

dsperber said:

porkr said:

What state are you in when you do this SAVE? What program? Not a browser?

You say "I downloaded a PDF and saved it to my desktop", so I assumed you were using a browser like Firefox or IE, to do either (a) "save link as..." before actually downloading it, or (b) "save page as..." after downloading it. But your screenshot suggests you are in some program other than a browser.

The top of this "save in" dialog shown in your screenshot suggests you are in some program, but I don't know what. Are you somehow in Acrobat Reader directly? I'm puzzled.

In particular, your screenshot doesn't show the Win7 address bar with the full expanded path to the target location I was expecting to see... again, suggesting some other situation from some other program when you started the "save" dialog. Instead, there are the major category buttons on the left side, again suggesting a dialog from some program other than a browser.

What program or state are you in when you start your "save" dialog??

For example, here is what it looks like for me when I do a "save page as..." from a tab in which a PDF has been downloaded/opened within Firefox:



Alternatively, if I right-click on the PDF link in the original web page while in Firefox and then choose "save link as...", I get a slightly different but obviously similar "save" dialog:

I was using Microsoft Xcel to do a "save as" to the desktop ( in this case ).

porkr said:

"I downloaded a PDF and saved it to my desktop"

I was using Microsoft Excel to do a "save as" to the desktop ( in this case ).

How do you use Excel for a PDF??

What version of Excel are you using? Is it old?

In my own Win7 and Excel 2007 situation, I again show the standard full "Save as..." dialog when I enter the Save process from Excel,



which again provides the normal Win7 address bar at the top showing the full path to the target folder location as I've navigated to it.

Granted, I'm not normally using the "desktop" as my target



However even If I change things and save "to the desktop", the Win7 address bar at the top of the "Save As..." dialog window still shows the path to the desktop.

When I do a "Save As' from any program -- XLS, Adobe, Word, Powerpoint my target for the save is the Desktop :


In your screen shots it appears you're going to the desktop using the fully qualified path ===> My Computer ==> C Drive ===> Users ===> Username ===> Desktop ...

Anyway, no matter which file type ( or program ) I do a "Save As" with, the desktop will not show the file until I go to the desktop, right click and do a refresh --- which is annoying me to no end.

Since my last entry, I reran the Windows Experience Index procedure and reset my folder settings to the defaults. The desktop is working as designed ( so far ) -- we'll see how long it lasts......

porkr said:

When I do a "Save As' from any program -- XLS, Adobe, Word, Powerpoint my target for the save is the Desktop :

Your screenshot now shows saving a DOC, which is from Word. Your previous screenshot was supposed to be from Excel.

But both of these show a totally different "Save as..." dialog than my screenshots, which are from Office 2007 and present what I would describe as a standard Win7 save dialog.

Your screenshot shows what I believe is from a much older version of Office. That whole left pane in your version of "Save as" is not present in mine. Can you please state what edition of Office you are using?

In your screen shots it appears you're going to the desktop using the fully qualified path ===> My Computer ==> C Drive ===> Users ===> Username ===> Desktop ...

Well yes... that's exactly what I'm asking you to duplicate when you save something to "the desktop".

Using "desktop" on that left pane, from a very old edition of Office... well, I'm just suspicious of what that is really doing. Unless you see the standard Win7 address bar at the top which shows the fully qualified path, how can you possibly know what "desktop" in that left pane actually corresponds to?

That's why I'm exploring this whole subject of your version of Office. It just looks very old.

Anyway, no matter which file type ( or program ) I do a "Save As" with, the desktop will not show the file until I go to the desktop, right click and do a refresh --- which is annoying me to no end.

Which is exactly why I'm pursuing this whole subject of KNOWING IN ADVANCE WHERE "DESKTOP" REALLY IS GOING. If you look at my screenshot, the address bar shows EXACTLY where it is going... whether I pick a data folder somewhere, or "desktop", the address bar shows precisely and exactly where it is going!!

I want you to get to that same point, so that you will know where it is going BEFORE YOU PUSH OK TO SAVE IT!

Since my last entry, I reran the Windows Experience Index procedure and reset my folder settings to the defaults. The desktop is working as designed ( so far ) -- we'll see how long it lasts......

Seems totally irrelevant to me. I can't imagine this is the answer.

Your "Save as" dialog is nothing like the standard Win7 dialog. It looks like from a very old Office. This is more suspect to me, and you really don't know what "desktop" means if this is an old WinXP-compliant Office.

Instead of simply clicking on "desktop" button in your left pane, why don't you use the "My computer" button, and then navigate to \Users etc. just like my screenshot shows? That way you would know EXACTLY where you are putting it!!

Britton30 said:

Looks like Office XP?

Exactly.

And in XP there was \Documents and Settings\<username>\Desktop, which of course is not the Win7 \Users\<username>\Desktop.

I would have expected even an old Office XP and Win7 to "convert" that old reference to "Desktop" (in the left pane) to \Users\<username>\Desktop when Office XP is running in a Win7 environment, but I don't know for sure. That's one reason I upgraded to Office 2007.

Anyway, unless the standard Win7 "save as" dialog is seen, with the address bar across the top showing exactly where "desktop" corresponds to, I don't know what we can speculate about "desktop" in that left pane of an Office XP "save as" dialog.

dsperber said:

porkr said:

When I do a "Save As' from any program -- XLS, Adobe, Word, Powerpoint my target for the save is the Desktop :

Your screenshot now shows saving a DOC, which is from Word. Your previous screenshot was supposed to be from Excel.

But both of these show a totally different "Save as..." dialog than my screenshots, which are from Office 2007 and present what I would describe as a standard Win7 save dialog.

Your screenshot shows what I believe is from a much older version of Office. That whole left pane in your version of "Save as" is not present in mine. Can you please state what edition of Office you are using?

Office 2003

In your screen shots it appears you're going to the desktop using the fully qualified path ===> My Computer ==> C Drive ===> Users ===> Username ===> Desktop ...

Well yes... that's exactly what I'm asking you to duplicate when you save something to "the desktop".

I tried the fully qualified way with same results ( i.e. the file did not show on the desktop )

Using "desktop" on that left pane, from a very old edition of Office... well, I'm just suspicious of what that is really doing. Unless you see the standard Win7 address bar at the top which shows the fully qualified path, how can you possibly know what "desktop" in that left pane actually corresponds to?

That's why I'm exploring this whole subject of your version of Office. It just looks very old.

Anyway, no matter which file type ( or program ) I do a "Save As" with, the desktop will not show the file until I go to the desktop, right click and do a refresh --- which is annoying me to no end.

Which is exactly why I'm pursuing this whole subject of KNOWING IN ADVANCE WHERE "DESKTOP" REALLY IS GOING. If you look at my screenshot, the address bar shows EXACTLY where it is going... whether I pick a data folder somewhere, or "desktop", the address bar shows precisely and exactly where it is going!!

I want you to get to that same point, so that you will know where it is going BEFORE YOU PUSH OK TO SAVE IT!

Since my last entry, I reran the Windows Experience Index procedure and reset my folder settings to the defaults. The desktop is working as designed ( so far ) -- we'll see how long it lasts......

Seems totally irrelevant to me. I can't imagine this is the answer.

Desperation makes men do crazy things --- btw, this did not work.

Your "Save as" dialog is nothing like the standard Win7 dialog. It looks like from a very old Office. This is more suspect to me, and you really don't know what "desktop" means if this is an old WinXP-compliant Office.

Instead of simply clicking on "desktop" button in your left pane, why don't you use the "My computer" button, and then navigate to \Users etc. just like my screenshot shows? That way you would know EXACTLY where you are putting it!!

See entry above -- I tried the explicit qualified path w/o results.

Not to muddy the waters but I would like to mention I have a laptop running W7 64 bit Professional with same software stack and NO issues.

Additional information : When I do "Save As" to the desktop using Adobe PDF
the file does not show up either and I believe this is the standard W7 window :


So I do not think this is Office 2003 specific problem.

I also noticed that when I save screenshots ( using "save as" jpg ), the desktop displays the file immediately on the desktop as desired.

Additionally, when I look in the Recycle bin after deleting the files I am testing with, restoring the file immediately shows up on the desktop as desired. Note the "Original Location" field designates the explicit directory path to my desktop :



By the way, I want to say thank you for taking the time to try and "shoot" this annoying problem. :)

I am also following this thread for a possible fix :

Windows Explorer doesn&#39;t refresh when moving/deleting - Part 2