How do I expand the save as dialog box?

Hello Fabian,

I'm sorry to say, that Save As dialog box is not adjustable. You may wish to submit feedback to Apple in regards to having an adjustable Save As box.

That being said, you may be able to find a free file viewer/explorer app on the App Store that has increased functionality and/or suits your needs to rename files easier.

Product Feedback - Apple > MacOS (selecting the Operating System will ensure your feedback gets delivered to the correct team).

As you have likely discovered with long filenames in the Save/Save As panel, the visible filename field size is static, but one can continue to enter content and it will be clipped on the left of the filename field. So you can (unadvisedly) enter a sentence for a filename before saving. The fact that you can expand the filename column in the Finder List view has nothing to do with that AppKit Framework's NSSavePanel Class implementation that hundreds of Apple and third-party applications use.

Dialabrain has provided useful advice about shorter filenames, and I would not expect Apple to change something that is in such wide application usage.

If you hover your mouse pointer over the title of the window, you will see a down arrow appear to the right of file name (which would be "Untitled" for a new document).

Click the down arrow. You will get an alternative saving dialog where the file name field is about 50% larger.

FWIW, seeing the size of the name field is not going to change anytime soon, certainly not in Big Sur, the only work around I thought of is to copy the file name from the Save As… window, paste it into TextEdit or Notes, etc., edit the name there. Copy the edited version and paste it back into the Save As… window. That might avoid naming errors.

prodbyarctic wrote:

In the music industry I have to name my file with the name, key, bpm, collaborators and route notes of the composition. Just cutting one part out to make it shorter isn’t an option.

You have to? This is a requirement for your membership? Do they conduct audits?

In the computer industry, what you are describing is a "composite key" and is considered a Bad Thing. Suppose you didn't have complete information and your collaborators or notes were wrong? Then you have to change the file name. But what if you have directly referenced the file name elsewhere? Then you have to track down every use of that file name and change it there too.

What all of those parts are is "metadata" about your file. Even the name of the file is technically metadata. The filesystem uses an "inode" to refer to your file and then looks up the inode based on the text name that you provide when accessing it. Databases will do something similar. The name of a record will be something like "119BD0A2-74AF-442D-B136-AF14D5FA30A6". That value is unique and never has to change. Other systems can save this reference and always refer back to the same thing. But you can supply a more meaningful name, or maybe multiple names, notes, collaborators, literally anything you want. And everything is cross-referenced. You have a collaborator and you want to know what they've worked on? That's easy to do.

It sounds like you have gone beyond basic file management needs. The save dialog simply isn't designed for that. It is doing what it is designed. It may be as small as it is to annoy you on purpose and to push you towards a different way to organize your data.

I suggest you look for some 3rd party document database or organizer apps like DEVONThink, FileMaker Pro, or OmniFocus. While searching for alternatives to these that might be more appropriate for your use, I found this podcast by someone who seems to do similar work where they talk about both DEVONThink and OmniFocus. I don't use these apps myself, but I'm going to look into OmniFocus more closely. I think I really should be using something like this.

AFAIK, there is no way to change the size of the file name field. Your only option would be to use shorter file names.