“Many sites reported the ‘happy’ news that OS X Mountain Lion restores the Save As command, which was removed in OS X Lion,” David Morgenstern opines for ZDNet. “However, these cheers are undeserved.”
Morgenstern writes, “The problem is that Mountain Lion’s Save As isn’t the Save As that we knew and loved. Lloyd Chambers at the Mac Performance Guide tested and described the problem in a recent post. ‘If one edits a document, then chooses Save As, then BOTH the edited original document and the copy are saved, thus not only saving a new copy, but silently saving the original with the same changes, thus overwriting the original. If you notice this auto-whack, you can “Revert To” the older version*** (manually), but if you don’t notice, then at some later date you’ll be in for a confusing surprise. And maybe an OMG-what-happened (consider a customer invoice that was overwritten).'”
“It doesn’t surprise me that ‘Save As’ doesn’t work ‘as advertised.’ After all ‘Save’ doesn’t work ‘as advertised.’ In Apple’s brave new world, there is no ‘Save’ or ‘Save As.’ Everything you do is recorded, and you can always go back to previous versions of your work. There is no real destruction. It’s just not working the way we want it to work.
The way forward is to forget about Save As, and go back to ‘Duplicate’ which works with Apple’s new waveless paradigm,” Morgenstern writes. “He suggested that we just forget about Save As. If you want to modify a document, duplicate it from the very beginning of editing. And if you aren’t sure that you don’t want to keep changes, then quit the document without saving or save-as-ing.”
Morgenstern opines, “Apple is at fault here. As I’ve written before, the company is rejiggering the interface for its new user base and ignoring the longtime Mac user. This change is another influenced by the iOS paradigm. Perhaps Apple could offer us a Mac OS setting — as opposed to OS X, the new Lionized name — that would return the good ol’ Save As functionality to Lion and Mountain Lion.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” – Steve Jobs
Related articles:
How to bring back ‘Save As…’ to OS X Mountain Lion – July 31, 2012
‘Save As…’ silently resurrected in OS X Mountain Lion – June 12, 2012
Apple is losing its DNA. Too bad. They used to be a great computer company, and I really enjoyed using their OS. Can’t say the same these days! What a shame.
There are new features I do not understand. All My Files isn’t very useful if I have 4,000 documents on my Mac, and LaunchPad amounts to a Where’s Waldo game, but I can simply avoid both.
However I really don’t understand why the luddites are complaining about the very useful new commands Save and Duplicate.
Save works as it always did. The first time you use it, it allows you to choose a destination and a name for the file. If you Save again, it saves. One difference is that compliant software remembers any unsaved documents, so if I’m restarting or shutting down, I don’t have to run around and close all the windows, like I have to do at home before a storm. The other difference is that the OS stores all the versions, sort of like a personal SharePoint.
The Duplicate command is an improvement over Save As. I can work on a duplicate of a file without closing the original and without saving it until I decide I want to keep it. I could duplicate the file in its present state, then return to the original file and revert it to a previous version.
I like Save and Duplicate.
See, the issue with this is as such: take myself for instance. I am a journalist. I work on a document, when I am done, I choose to save it. Let’s say I go back to make changes to it, then now I have to duplicate it, which, I guess is fine, but when it goes to saving it in another location, OSX likes to hide that option. See, I write my documents, but most of the time, I like to save a second copy in another location, an Outbox Folder if you will, a special folder I designate for ALL documents that are proofread, correct and ready to be send to the editor. I couldn’t wrap my head around this new apple way of thinking and resorted to using LibreOffice which has the Save As feature and works as intended. See I don’t need a computer to auto save for me, I am disciplined enough to do that myself, Apples direction really scares me and honestly I ended up just installing Ubuntu 12.04.2 on the macbook pro and have been happy ever since…
I always find a way to ‘Save As’ when I want to, whether the OS GUI cooperates or not. This is entirely a Windows way of working. What a shame.
But it’s worth giving the new method a chance. It may work just fine for most people. Just not for we-the-geeks.
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I think the real point of save as, at least for me is, I open a Doc then Save as. I then work on the saved as doc. A Simple Copy of the doc gives the same results.
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this is accomplished by File > Duplicate. Done.
Duplicate, save a Version and copy/rename files LOSE their “history” – in other words – the ability to restore to previous versions as is possible with the original files is gone.
I too deplore Apple’s imposition of kindergarten-level computing on its more experienced user base.
There are valid workflow reasons why Save as… is a good (often the best) option. It’s a pain to read comments by people who obviously do not have a need for such workflows. If you do not know or understand other users issues, please do not butt in with ignorance and devalue their legitimate pleas in the eyes of Apple.
Why does Apple not allow a preference settings (Advanced) that gives a choice and support all their users?
If Adobe omitted Save as… there would be a global groundswell of protest, because their users know why Save as… is a valuable and necessary workflow tool.
Apple software used to be made for pros too, but, goaded by their iGadget success, Apple Inc. is now a consumer gadget maker, appealing to the consumer masses (the lowest common denominator) with their OSX as well. Two different worlds.
Omitting a functional Save as… is just one of a huge number of detrimental changes from Snow Leopard onwards that are shackling the OSX and making it increasingly less capable for competent users.
When innovation stops, tinkering begins…
“I could duplicate the file in its present state, then return to the original file and revert it to a previous version.”
Not correct!
Please at least try you remedy before posting and defending Apple’s imposition of a downgrade solution.
Duplicates (as do versions and renamed copies) lose their history and previous versions are available ONLY from the point of duplication.
If Apple team try to prove how bad they can be without Steve Jobs, OS X Lion has done it. It’s not just the ‘save as’ there are tons of what has stupidity changed. Unbeivable ignorance of common sense!! Hire a guy with common sense will ya, it saves apple a lot of time and bad decisions.
There are two primary user-story scenarios for OSX – Consumers (Mac) and Creators (Mac Pro).
The consumers dont want to have to think and play like they’re on their ipads. The Creators want the file system, the dev tools, the execution babysitting turned off, the fullscreen to work on more than one monitor.
The divide is between Mac users and Mac Pro users and since Snow Leopard the latter have been forgotten by Apple.
Time was that Mac Pro was the best place for pros.
Until Apple fix this, Im having to do increasingly more config to get pro work done.
Save as workflow should be a system-wide switch into Pro mode.