In OS X Leopard, Apple provided simpler, minimized, save and print dialog boxes which hide all that confusing detail — like where you want to save your files, or how you want to print your documents. For access to the full information, click the small inverted arrow in those dialog boxes.
Read on for a couple quick terminal commands to make expanded print/save dialogs the default.
For more technically inclined users, here are the terminal commands to apply this hack. Please consider yourself sufficiently warned that using terminal can break your computer if mishandled.
Expand the Save Dialog by Default.
Enable expanded save dialog:
defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE
Disable expanded save dialog:
defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool FALSE
Expand the Print Dialog by Default.
Enable expanded print dialog:
defaults write -g PMPrintingExpandedStateForPrint -bool TRUE
Disable expanded print dialog:
defaults write -g PMPrintingExpandedStateForPrint -bool FALSE
Source: At Creativetechs, we incorporate this twist when building new base images for larger creative teams. These terminal techniques were also covered in recent posts at TUAW.com and OS X Daily.