Auto-download files to specific folders

What you need: Chrome or Firefox Time required: 20 minutes

By default, anything you download to your PC goes into your Downloads folder. Save In is a new browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that lets you create sub-folders within your Downloads folder and choose which you want to save files to, making it easier to sort your downloads. The extension also lets you save text from websites. It involves some simple programming, which we’ll explain below.

STEP 1

Skip to Step 2 if you use Firefox. If you use Chrome, go to www.snipca.com/28769, scroll down to the ‘save-in’ section, then click the Chrome Web Store link. On the page that opens, click the ‘+Add To Chrome’ button, then ‘Add extension’. Next, click the ‘Save In…’ extension icon in your browser toolbar 1 , then click Options 2 . You’ll see a page that lets you tweak the extension’s default settings. Now skip to Step 3. To download the Firefox extension, go to www.snipca.com/28769, scroll down to the ‘save-in’ section and click the Firefox Addons link. On the web page that opens, click the ‘Add to Firefox’ button 1 , Add 2 , then click OK. Next, click the menu icon 3 , Add-ons 4 , click Extensions on the left, then click the Options button next to ‘Save In…’. You’ll see a page that lets you tweak the extension’s default settings.

STEP 2 STEP 3

Scroll down to the box below ‘A symlink i needed to…’ 1 , where you’ll see four items: a full stop, ‘images’, ‘images/cute’ and ‘videos’ 2 . The items represent the default sub-folder names that appear in your PC’S Downloads folder. The entries below 3 represent sub-folders that can only be seen after you save files to them.

STEP 4

We’ll now show you how the extension works and how to customise the default sub-folder names. Open any web page in Chrome or Firefox, right-click any image on the page, then move your cursor to the Save In option in your pop-up menu 1 . You’ll see the four folders from Step 3 2 . Move your cursor to ‘submenu’ 3 to see the sub-folders from Step 3. It’s a good idea to keep this web page (with the image) open while you make the following changes.

STEP 5

Return to Save In’s Options settings. Now rename the default sub-folder names to something more relevant. For example, we changed our folders to ‘Downloaded files, Videos and Text 1 . To create an option with subfolders, leave a space and type a name (we typed Images 2 ). On the next lines, add a right-pointing arrow, then type the names for the sub-folders you want within this option (we added Landscape and Portrait 3 ). You can add as many sub-folders as you want using this method.

STEP 6

Return to your web page, right-click the image you selected, then move your cursor to Save In… 1 . You’ll now see the new folders you created 2 , as well as the sub-folders 3 (which you access by hovering your cursor over Images). Click to select the one you want to save the image to. To save text, select it, right-click, choose Save In, then choose where to save it – it will be stored as a Notepad file. Now open your Downloads folder and you'll see all the sub-folders you created containing the files you downloaded.

STEP 7

If you download a file without using ‘Save In’, it will download to the last Save In sub-folder you used. Scroll down to the bottom of the Save In Options section to tweak other settings. For example, you can choose to receive a prompt before downloading files that lets you choose which sub-folder you want to save files to. You can also choose to display notifications when files finish downloading, set keyboard shortcuts for downloading to specific Save In folders 1 , and set it so you can press the Alt key and click to download items 2 (instead of right-clicking).