Fix #703: the Templates folder is in the desktop's documents folder

New from Template... and Save as Template opened their dialog in
~/Documents/VectorCraft Templates. On desktops whose documents folder has
another name (Italian ~/Documenti) or where the folder was never made, the
dialog started in a folder that doesn't exist and showed an error.

- The default Templates folder is now in the user's documents folder: on Linux
  and the BSDs the one XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR names in user-dirs.dirs, elsewhere
  ~/Documents.
- The folder a dialog starts in is made when missing; where it can't be, the
  dialog starts in the nearest folder above it that exists, else home.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

ROADMAP.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ VectorCraft is a clean-room, open-source, pure-Rust reimplementation of the Adob
 
 This file tracks **how far we are and what's left**. Time estimates are wall-clock hours of continuous Claude Opus 5.5 agent work (including builds and the CI gate), given both for **one agent** and for **4–6 parallel agents** on disjoint crates. They are counted from the remaining work (see [Parity estimate](#parity-estimate)), calibrated against measured throughput, and updated as work lands.
 
-_Last updated: 2026-10-09 (after placed documents (File › Place of a `.vectorcraft` file, linked), M4.14–M4.98, M8.1–M8.20, M14.4–M14.7, the MCP prompts, resource templates, completions and logging, the 2026-10-07 issue fixes, the Layers panel rework and the 2026-10-08 community contributions: Pen and shape-tool modifiers, path editing, Layers, Artboards, Swatches/Brushes and dialogs, Japanese composition and PDF text, Hebrew/Arabic type, interface languages (Spanish among them), the font menu, saved selections, MCP and EPS, the missing-font export warning (#319), open paths in the Shape Builder (#374), PDF/`.ai` import keeping strokes live and hidden and nested layers (#372), per-corner Live Corners (#381), SVG type opening at the size it draws at (#396), the Wayland clipboard with copied-file paste (#398), ruler guides that can be selected, moved and deleted (#414), two batches of Preferences options that were stored but unused (#394), skeleton reads with `document.find` for large documents over MCP (#416) and anchors dragged with Direct Selection snapping to points, segments and smart guides, clipped SVG layers opening as clipping layers (#420), PDF/`.ai` layers read on pages of tens of millions of operators (#419), Document Color Mode putting RGB greys on the black plate on request and converting pattern tiles (#421) and movable dialogs with Offset Path's Joins dropdown (#423) and numeric fields scrubbed by dragging their label (#400), stroke weight presets in the stroke unit (#426), the Appearance panel's Opacity popup (#430), type on a path brackets, flip and Type on a Path Options that keep the type in place (#429), Layers rows dragged with a ghost and dropped on the trash or New Layer (#435), tool flyouts opening on a right or corner press (#436), tool flyouts torn off into floating toolbars (#437), the Shape Builder's erase mode deleting edges too (#439), installed fonts registered outside the font folders and fonts installed while the app runs listed in the font menus (#443), alike circular corners on rectangles that aren't square (#442), tool cursors as OS cursors so the pointer no longer trails over the canvas (#444), artboards copied and pasted with their art (#446), guides dragged out of the rulers snapping to the art's side midpoints and the artboards, artboard guides (#451), the toolbar's double arrow and Window › Toolbars › Double Column switching between one and two columns in any window height (#455), the Smart Guides display options and Snapping Tolerance (#394), Font Size and Leading combo boxes with preset lists in the Character and Properties panels and the Control bar (#458), screenshots pasted from the clipboard on macOS, Windows and the web (#457), the Properties panel's Fill and Stroke matching the Control bar's, Illustrator's Window menu panel keys (Shift+F7 for Align…) and Alt-wheel zoom whatever the wheel preference (Discord feedback), the point/area type widget (Discord feedback), groups in legacy Illustrator .ai files (Discord feedback), a rotating desktop log file (#465), image controls in the Control bar and Properties panel: Image Trace with its presets, Mask, Crop Image, Embed/Unembed, and an Image Trace object's preset, Expand and Release (Discord feedback), the Pen working as the Anchor Point tool with Alt held over a selected path's handles and anchors, and anchor buttons that convert, connect and cut paths at the selected anchors (Discord feedback), Japanese hanging punctuation (burasagari, #463), Escape leaving Presentation Mode with no screen mode saved across restarts, documents dropped on the desktop app opening as tabs of their own and a note that an `.ai` file's art off its artboards isn't in the part read (#472), Add/Delete Anchor Point tool icons drawn from the Pen tool's (#479), EPS import running more of PostScript Level 3 (patterns, Type 3 fonts, mesh shadings, masked images, VM and resource probes), and a preview that stands in saying why (Discord feedback, #466, #469, #474), chords with modifiers recorded in Edit › Keyboard Shortcuts (#487), Type Object Selection by Path Only (#394), Anti-aliased Artwork (#394), Show Pixel Grid (#394), pen and touch taps pressed and lifted within one frame clicking where they tapped and the Linux/Wayland pen-tablet workaround (#491), bounding-box resizes landing on the other objects' anchors and centres with labels, and the Rotate, Scale, Shear and Reflect tools snapping their drags (#482), Shift-drag marquees that toggle the objects or anchors they reach and a Lasso whose Alt subtraction keeps the rest of the selection (#483), the mouse wheel stepping the focused numeric field, the dialogs' and preferences' drag values made such fields (#485), Show The Home Screen When No Documents Are Open (#394), Numbers Without Units Are Points (#394), Auto-Collapse Iconic Panels (#394), the Contextual Task Bar moved by its handle and its More Options menu pinning and resetting its position, a designed macOS DMG windoLine truncated
+_Last updated: 2026-10-09 (after placed documents (File › Place of a `.vectorcraft` file, linked), M4.14–M4.98, M8.1–M8.20, M14.4–M14.7, the MCP prompts, resource templates, completions and logging, the 2026-10-07 issue fixes, the Layers panel rework and the 2026-10-08 community contributions: Pen and shape-tool modifiers, path editing, Layers, Artboards, Swatches/Brushes and dialogs, Japanese composition and PDF text, Hebrew/Arabic type, interface languages (Spanish among them), the font menu, saved selections, MCP and EPS, the missing-font export warning (#319), open paths in the Shape Builder (#374), PDF/`.ai` import keeping strokes live and hidden and nested layers (#372), per-corner Live Corners (#381), SVG type opening at the size it draws at (#396), the Wayland clipboard with copied-file paste (#398), ruler guides that can be selected, moved and deleted (#414), two batches of Preferences options that were stored but unused (#394), skeleton reads with `document.find` for large documents over MCP (#416) and anchors dragged with Direct Selection snapping to points, segments and smart guides, clipped SVG layers opening as clipping layers (#420), PDF/`.ai` layers read on pages of tens of millions of operators (#419), Document Color Mode putting RGB greys on the black plate on request and converting pattern tiles (#421) and movable dialogs with Offset Path's Joins dropdown (#423) and numeric fields scrubbed by dragging their label (#400), stroke weight presets in the stroke unit (#426), the Appearance panel's Opacity popup (#430), type on a path brackets, flip and Type on a Path Options that keep the type in place (#429), Layers rows dragged with a ghost and dropped on the trash or New Layer (#435), tool flyouts opening on a right or corner press (#436), tool flyouts torn off into floating toolbars (#437), the Shape Builder's erase mode deleting edges too (#439), installed fonts registered outside the font folders and fonts installed while the app runs listed in the font menus (#443), alike circular corners on rectangles that aren't square (#442), tool cursors as OS cursors so the pointer no longer trails over the canvas (#444), artboards copied and pasted with their art (#446), guides dragged out of the rulers snapping to the art's side midpoints and the artboards, artboard guides (#451), the toolbar's double arrow and Window › Toolbars › Double Column switching between one and two columns in any window height (#455), the Smart Guides display options and Snapping Tolerance (#394), Font Size and Leading combo boxes with preset lists in the Character and Properties panels and the Control bar (#458), screenshots pasted from the clipboard on macOS, Windows and the web (#457), the Properties panel's Fill and Stroke matching the Control bar's, Illustrator's Window menu panel keys (Shift+F7 for Align…) and Alt-wheel zoom whatever the wheel preference (Discord feedback), the point/area type widget (Discord feedback), groups in legacy Illustrator .ai files (Discord feedback), a rotating desktop log file (#465), image controls in the Control bar and Properties panel: Image Trace with its presets, Mask, Crop Image, Embed/Unembed, and an Image Trace object's preset, Expand and Release (Discord feedback), the Pen working as the Anchor Point tool with Alt held over a selected path's handles and anchors, and anchor buttons that convert, connect and cut paths at the selected anchors (Discord feedback), Japanese hanging punctuation (burasagari, #463), Escape leaving Presentation Mode with no screen mode saved across restarts, documents dropped on the desktop app opening as tabs of their own and a note that an `.ai` file's art off its artboards isn't in the part read (#472), Add/Delete Anchor Point tool icons drawn from the Pen tool's (#479), EPS import running more of PostScript Level 3 (patterns, Type 3 fonts, mesh shadings, masked images, VM and resource probes), and a preview that stands in saying why (Discord feedback, #466, #469, #474), chords with modifiers recorded in Edit › Keyboard Shortcuts (#487), Type Object Selection by Path Only (#394), Anti-aliased Artwork (#394), Show Pixel Grid (#394), pen and touch taps pressed and lifted within one frame clicking where they tapped and the Linux/Wayland pen-tablet workaround (#491), bounding-box resizes landing on the other objects' anchors and centres with labels, and the Rotate, Scale, Shear and Reflect tools snapping their drags (#482), Shift-drag marquees that toggle the objects or anchors they reach and a Lasso whose Alt subtraction keeps the rest of the selection (#483), the mouse wheel stepping the focused numeric field, the dialogs' and preferences' drag values made such fields (#485), Show The Home Screen When No Documents Are Open (#394), Numbers Without Units Are Points (#394), Auto-Collapse Iconic Panels (#394), the Contextual Task Bar moved by its handle and its More Options menu pinning and resetting its position, a designed macOS DMG windoLine truncated
 
 ## Where we are
 

crates/engine/src/cmd/fileio/mod.rs

@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ pub use pdfimport::{LoadOptions, page_document};
 pub(crate) use save::job_for;
 pub use save::{
     SAVE_FORMATS, SaveJob, SaveMode, SavePlan, export_folder, save_filters, save_format, save_job, save_plan, save_with, stamp_save_dates,
-    templates_folder,
+    templates_dialog_folder, templates_folder,
 };
 pub use screens::{PRESETS as SCREEN_PRESETS, ScreenSize, preset_rows as screen_preset_rows};
 pub(crate) use screens::{

crates/engine/src/cmd/fileio/save.rs

@@ -98,13 +98,52 @@ pub fn stamp_save_dates(st: &mut DocState, at: i64) {
     d.metadata.modified = Some(at);
 }
 
-/// The Templates folder: the `templatesFolder` preference, else `Documents/VectorCraft Templates`
-/// in the user's home (none where there is no home folder, as on the web).
+/// The Templates folder: the `templatesFolder` preference, else `VectorCraft Templates` in the
+/// user's documents folder (none where there is no home folder, as on the web).
 pub fn templates_folder(prefs: &Prefs) -> Option<String> {
     if !prefs.templates_folder.is_empty() {
         return Some(prefs.templates_folder.clone());
     }
-    Some(std::path::Path::new(&home_folder()?).join("Documents").join("VectorCraft Templates").to_string_lossy().to_string())
+    Some(documents_folder()?.join("VectorCraft Templates").to_string_lossy().to_string())
+}
+
+/// The Templates folder for a file dialog to start in (#703): made when it's missing; where it
+/// can't be, the nearest folder above it that exists, else the home folder. A dialog asked to
+/// start in a folder that isn't there shows an error on some desktops.
+pub fn templates_dialog_folder(prefs: &Prefs) -> Option<String> {
+    let folder = std::path::PathBuf::from(templates_folder(prefs)?);
+    if !folder.is_dir() {
+        // Best effort: a folder that can't be made leaves the nearest one that exists.
+        let _ = std::fs::create_dir_all(&folder);
+    }
+    folder.ancestors().find(|a| a.is_dir()).map(|a| a.to_string_lossy().into_owned()).or_else(home_folder)
+}
+
+/// The user's documents folder: on Linux and the BSDs the one the desktop names
+/// (`XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR` in `user-dirs.dirs`: `~/Documenti`, `~/Dokumente`…), elsewhere `Documents`
+/// in the home folder.
+fn documents_folder() -> Option<std::path::PathBuf> {
+    let home = std::path::PathBuf::from(home_folder()?);
+    if cfg!(all(unix, not(target_os = "macos"))) {
+        let config =
+            std::env::var_os("XDG_CONFIG_HOME").map(std::path::PathBuf::from).filter(|p| p.is_absolute()).unwrap_or_else(|| home.join(".config"));
+        if let Some(dir) = std::fs::read_to_string(config.join("user-dirs.dirs")).ok().and_then(|t| xdg_documents(&t, &home)) {
+            return Some(dir);
+        }
+    }
+    Some(home.join("Documents"))
+}
+
+/// `XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR` in a `user-dirs.dirs` file's `text`, `$HOME` being `home`. None when it isn't
+/// set, is relative, or is the home folder itself (the spec's way of turning it off).
+fn xdg_documents(text: &str, home: &std::path::Path) -> Option<std::path::PathBuf> {
+    let line = text.lines().map(str::trim).find(|l| l.starts_with("XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="))?;
+    let value = line.split_once('=')?.1.trim().trim_matches('"');
+    let dir = match value.strip_prefix("$HOME") {
+        Some(rest) => home.join(rest.trim_start_matches('/')),
+        None => std::path::PathBuf::from(value),
+    };
+    (dir.has_root() && dir != home).then_some(dir)
 }
 
 /// The user's home folder (`HOME`, else `USERPROFILE` on Windows; none on the web).
@@ -189,7 +228,7 @@ pub fn save_plan(s: &Session, mode: SaveMode, p: &Value) -> Result<SavePlan> {
         SaveMode::Save | SaveMode::SaveAs => format!("{stem}.{ext}"),
     };
     let folder = match mode {
-        SaveMode::Template => templates_folder(&s.prefs),
+        SaveMode::Template => templates_dialog_folder(&s.prefs),
         _ => st.path.as_deref().and_then(parent_folder),
     };
     let modified = date_param(p, "modified", cmd)?;
@@ -614,3 +653,40 @@ pub(super) fn specs() -> Vec<CommandSpec> {
         ),
     ]
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests_folders {
+    use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
+
+    /// #703: the documents folder a desktop names in `user-dirs.dirs`, not an English `Documents`.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_desktops_documents_folder_is_read_from_user_dirs() {
+        let home = Path::new("/home/david");
+        let file = "# comment\nXDG_DESKTOP_DIR=\"$HOME/Scrivania\"\nXDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR=\"$HOME/Documenti\"\n";
+        assert_eq!(super::xdg_documents(file, home), Some(PathBuf::from("/home/david/Documenti")));
+        assert_eq!(super::xdg_documents("XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR=\"/data/docs\"", home), Some(PathBuf::from("/data/docs")));
+        // "$HOME/" turns it off; a relative or missing one isn't used.
+        assert_eq!(super::xdg_documents("XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR=\"$HOME/\"", home), None);
+        assert_eq!(super::xdg_documents("XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR=\"docs\"", home), None);
+        assert_eq!(super::xdg_documents("XDG_MUSIC_DIR=\"$HOME/Musica\"", home), None);
+    }
+
+    /// #703: the Templates folder a dialog starts in exists: made when missing, else the nearest
+    /// folder above it.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_templates_dialog_folder_exists() {
+        let base = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("vc-templates-{}", std::process::id()));
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_dir_all(&base);
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&base).unwrap();
+        let mut prefs = crate::Prefs::default();
+        let wanted = base.join("Modelli").join("VectorCraft Templates");
+        prefs.templates_folder = wanted.to_string_lossy().into_owned();
+        assert_eq!(super::templates_dialog_folder(&prefs).map(PathBuf::from), Some(wanted.clone()));
+        assert!(wanted.is_dir(), "made");
+        // A file in the way: the nearest folder that exists.
+        std::fs::write(base.join("blocked"), b"x").unwrap();
+        prefs.templates_folder = base.join("blocked").join("Templates").to_string_lossy().into_owned();
+        assert_eq!(super::templates_dialog_folder(&prefs).map(PathBuf::from), Some(base.clone()));
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_dir_all(&base);
+    }
+}

crates/ui-egui/src/io.rs

@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ pub fn new_from_template(app: &mut VectorcraftApp, path: Option<String>) -> Resu
         None if app.services.open_async.is_some() => return open_dialog(app).map(|_| Value::Null),
         None => {
             let filters = std::iter::once(("Templates", TEMPLATE_EXTS)).chain(fileio::open_filters()).collect();
-            pick_open(app, &FilePick { folder: fileio::templates_folder(&app.session.prefs), filters, ..Default::default() })?
+            pick_open(app, &FilePick { folder: fileio::templates_dialog_folder(&app.session.prefs), filters, ..Default::default() })?
         }
     };
     let bytes = read(app, &path)?;