Dear Anders, Thank you very much for the response; and I apologize for my slow reply (I am using a new email account that I forgot to check---I will check it regularly going forward).
I am using the Cinnamon desktop environment by the way. I just did a "saving test," and I realized that my initial description of events was inaccurate. When saving a LibreOffice and/or .jpg file from the internet (for example) the automatically-highlighted text IS pre-selected initially (this is good news). Furthermore, if I select a different "main folder" (e.g., "Desktop," "Documents," "Music," etc., from the right-hand "panel" of the file manager) then the text is STILL selected---this is also good news. However, once I select a sub-folder (within the file manager's main viewing area) the file's name becomes unselected despite still being highlighted in blue. This last case is the problematic one because although the text is highlighted in all three cases, the meaning of the third case is fundamentally different (it has no meaning). Sorry for my inaccurate description beforehand; I hope that this one makes sense. Lastly, I suppose that this issue is problematic, in part, because of the inconsistency: whether or not text is ACTUALLY selected depends on whether a "main folder" or a "sub folder" was selected when saving the file (sorry, I'm not sure what the proper terminology is), and since saving a file is something that most people do without thinking too much about (I presume), this inconsistency can create an unending sequence of "little annoyances". All my best, Chris. Sent with Proton Mail secure email. On Saturday, March 21st, 2026 at 11:47 PM, Anders Andersson <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sat, Mar 21, 2026 at 12:32 PM blender505 <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hello, > > > > It goes without saying that Debian is amazing software, and I am grateful > > to all of the developers for their valuable time and dedication to the > > project. > > > > I have been using Debian for about 6 years, and it is my primary operating > > system. > > > > In an effort to "help" with the project, I would like to offer a quick > > suggestion (since I am sure that others have brought this up before, my > > message will simply add another voice): When saving a file, the file's name > > is automatically highlighted in blue, but it is not selected. This is > > confusing because a "selected" filename is also highlighted in blue, and I > > often---without thinking---proceed to edit the file's name just to find out > > that I am actually changing the save location. Two potential remedies > > would be: (1) do not automatically highlight the file's name in blue (so > > that our brains do not trick us into thinking the name is selected), or (2) > > automatically select the file's name from the beginning so that our > > expectation---which is formed from the blue highlight---is met. > > I'll ignore those who don't know that GNOME is the standard Debian > desktop environment since, well, a long time and assume you're using a > standard Debian install. > > I remember being annoyed by the same issue in the past, but I haven't > been for some time, I wonder if the behavior changed between Debian 12 > and Debian 13. I can't repeat it with the few tools I tried now: > Firefox, OpenSCAD (Qt), LibreOffice Calc, GNOME Text Editor, and > blender (completely custom UI). > > What tool do you use when you see this, and is this only when trying > to save to a tile that already exists, or only for new files? > >
