I like using xpdf, but I can't find how to configure it for my prefered directories. There are two that I'd particularly like to configure: 1) the default directory that it uses when you want to open a file, 2) the default directory where you want to save a file.

Number 1 defaults to the user's home directory.
Number 2 defaults to /tmp.
Both of these are accessed via the pop-up menu with right-click on any page.

I have looked at the man pages for both xpdf and xpdfrc. I have also visited the maker's website (www.foolabs.com/xpdf) with no joy.

The system-wide xpdfrc file doesn't refer to these locations either, AFAIK.

I'm running Debian Wheezy.

Bonus question: what governs the placement of xpdf's user-input windows? When I right-click to bring up the menu, the first window always centers on the screen, and clicking on "Open" centers the file selection window as well. However, when I select a directory the next box is located far to the right of my screen where I can't use the scroll bar, and I have to move the window to the left before I can scroll in order to select a file. I'd like that third window to center as the others do.

Thanks,
Keith Ostertag

If you create a script that CDs the directory you want to be used for default saving and then launch xpdf from there you get the trick:

Slackyman, unfortunately this does not work in what is for me (and, judging by a swift google) the most common situation in which this annoyance surfaces. The problem is that once a file is opened in xpdf, the "Save as" directory defaults to the location of that file, regardless of the directory from which xpdf was run. Thus e.g. if your browser is configured to open pdfs using xpdf, it most likely downloads a copy to /tmp and then opens the downloaded copy - in which case the "Save as" directory defaults to /tmp even if xpdf was started from a different directory.