File save lets you save your file either by it's extension e.g save a file.xcf as a a XCF image. The XCF file format is Gimps native file format and is the preferred format to save all your images in. You can of course save as e.g TIFF or JPEG but all the specific Gimp image information will be lost (i.e the information about layers, channels, parasites, etc).

When you save a image in a non Gimp format (i.e not as a XCF or XJT image) will get the opportunity to export it. By exporting it you will be sure of getting all the visual image information saved in the non native format. If you Ignore export then only the currently active layer will be saved.

The save dialog works like any other file dialogs but you also have two ways to fast navigation. Tab completion, e.g if you have a directory /gimp and the save dialog is currently with in the /home/gimp directly. Then you only have to type /gi and hit tab and the name will be completed (It works just like tab completion in bash or tchs sells in UNIX or if you have turned it on as tab completion in the cms in NT). You also have a drop down directory menu which will enable you to quickly move up in the directory hirarcy.

To even extend the opportunity you can create directories, delete and rename files in the save dialog. Creating directories is very handy since often end up doing a new image for a new project before you made a directory to contain images for the project. However you must sometimes step up and down once in the directory hierarcy before Gimp will be able to see the new directory.

Index