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Disable autosave

Hello, anybody figured out how one can disable autosave? I just *don't* want it, and I have my reasons.

Thanks,


l.

Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 10:30 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 10:32 AM

I don't think so.

696 replies

Jul 23, 2011 3:25 AM in response to tim ferris

That auto-save thing is the worst thing that Apple did since long time. I use to play around with pictures in Preview very much to identify what I'm gonna do in Pixelmator later but I can't to this anymore because it's all being saved. If I had known about that I wouldn't have bought Lion. That's really bad and an immature move from Apple. I hope they change it...otherwise I don't think I can accept this OS. But where to go? The alternatives are bad too.

Jul 23, 2011 3:30 AM in response to walnussbaer

I have a theroy, It might not be the auto save thats bad, its the explination of it and how to use it maybe? It took me ages to find out where auto save was and how to "go back in time" on a document. In the end i called Apple only to find out its hidden in a drop down menu on the doc name. Not very user freindly or clear


This doesnt get over the issues im having of saving large keynote presetations and delaying my work for a minute or 2 everytime i had media, but it might get round some of the others as i notice there is a duplicate option?


This is mobile me take two, a great idea but no ones knows how the **** it works.

Jul 23, 2011 4:00 AM in response to walnussbaer

I'm totally with you. The problem is that the development goes in the direction of continous documents without making a difference between open and closed. So if documents in future will never be closed or opend, there will be no "don't save" available.


The solution I would prefer is to make the "Save" command as a kind of snapshot. Closing the window (cmd-W) of the document would automatically save the work but also having the coice of closing it without saving since the last snapshot-save by hitting for instance alt-cmd-W.


That would be totally fine for me.

Jul 23, 2011 6:28 AM in response to walnussbaer

Hi! All is not lost, and in some ways your workflow is better now. Want to doodle? Open your document and choose duplicate from the file menu. You don't need to pollute your file system yet, preview will auto save the untitled document. Power goes out on and iMac with no UPS?

Document saved recently. Save when you want. Click the old file in the save dialog to replace it.


Actions are more purposeful now, vs being destructive and hope you don't mess up somehow. It just requires us to rethink things a little. Give it some time, and remember that your original is sitting there unharmed, you have a duplicate you didn't need to name, you can play at will and then name when you purposefully save.


I kind of like it.

Jul 23, 2011 7:19 AM in response to Steven W. Riggins

They just shouldn't dumb it down too much for people like me, who come from Linux (and I mean command-line Linux, not flashy new Windows-imitation Linux), because we surely make up a noteworthy portion of the software developers, and if the success of the iPhone has shown one thing, it's that the available Apps make a very large difference...

Jul 23, 2011 7:29 AM in response to Steven W. Riggins

Look, it's very simple. There is a terrible OS that has imposed decisions on the users, offered in a sauce of absurd, sometimes ridiculous, interface decision. It's called Windows. Apple consistently offered something better, largely thanks to a very maniacal attention to the details and to the usability of the programmed features.


Lion is the first time this line has been abandoned. It looks like Windows. Offering people better tools to work: that's great. Obliging people to work in a particular way, that's bad. Even more so when it is crystal clear that those who designed these features didn't think through them hard enough. In the case in point, what they offer is plainly useless to everybody writing documents more than one page long. I defy anybody to go through all the changes that Versions will make when writing a paper and find the one s/he wanted to go back to, in case this is ever needed. Let's hope somebody quickly gives Apple a sense of direction in designing the OS. I see it lost now.

Jul 23, 2011 7:34 AM in response to Cohi

I am an iOS engineer, and I have used Macs since Feb, 1984, just for some background.


I don't feel this issue is dumbing down the OS. Rather, i think it is trying to make it more consistent across the entire apple family. I know some loathe the mobile devices, but that is where the future is. The market response has proven it. So I think with iCloud and what not, they may be ripping the bandaid off now so to speak, so people are not confused later when only 50% of their stuff works properly.


I don't know, but keep sending feedback. I think the main thing for people to remember is:


* Apple is a smart collection of people - 75 billion in the bank is proof. Selling more iPads than Macs is proof

* Treat them with respect - If you dislike something, check your emotions at the door. "This is the worst, immature decision ever!" is going to get you nowhere. You're wasting their time, and ours (this is not for you cohi, just communities in general)

* Explain to Apple why you want a change. Apple has proven ever since 10.0 shipped that "because I want the choice" is not a good enough reason for them. Honestly. Choices add confusion for some (sadly), take time to engineer and test, so they have a cost associated with them. Explain why that choice would be better for Apple's customers, and not just you.


Your plea may fall on deaf ears. Or it may not. Apple has listened in the recent past (I cannot say how) but they have listened and made changes.


I'm often accused of being a fanboi, but I'm not really. I just try to figure out where Apple is headed (because they never tell us) and see if this is a good thing or not.


Take the Magic Trackpad. When it shipped, it was ok, cool, I get a trackpad for my Snow Leopard machine. It's cool, but not necessary. Now we see why Apple got those magic trackpads into the market early, so they'd be there when Lion, with its extra gestures shipped. It was a calculated move.


Unfortunately, Apple users have to live in the now, while Apple is preparing for three years from now.

Jul 23, 2011 8:02 AM in response to Steven W. Riggins

Thank you for your feedback Steven. I actually *am* a fanboy, to the point of being derided by my colleagues :-)


http://psy.cns.sissa.it/perso/lucapapers/CrashBlindness.pdf


I think I understand the reason behind many of the changes Apple introduced, including many in Lion, although surely less than you do. I have the highest respect for what Apple has done in terms of improving my daily life, which basically consists of constant interactions with the computer, and I know for a fact how smart people are there at Apple.


But this is really a very clear one: write a 40 pages paper and sift through the changes. How are you going to find the one you are interested in? The only way to mark "significant" versions now is to save them as separate documents and go back to them manually. This is basic usability. To expand on the problem, although I cannot do it here completely, there are several other aspects that should have been taken into account and I don't see them considered with autosave and Versions. For example, I run psychological experiments for a living. When they run, it is crucial to have a control of the computer processes, as much as possible. This this is in principle impossible in a preemptive multitasking system. However, my experience is that OS X behaves better than any other system in this respect. It is less intrusive and more careful about when it decides to interfere with your work. Even aggressive processes (e.g., spotlight indexing) behave very well, and can be suspended when necessary (for example, by excluding a folder from being indexed when you run an experiment). Now, I don't see how to do that with autosave. Am I going to be able to use Lion for my experiments? I am afraid, no. Because I can never predict when and how some experimenter has left some of the programs that implement autosave running in the background, thus risking to slow down the machine in critical moments of an experiment. That's not good, and again, it's very simple to just give people ways to decide how and when to use these features. Apparently, the decision has been made not to let people do this in Lion. Result: I won't upgrade my experimental machines to Lion.


(As for the magic trackpad: off topics, but it was a great idea. I had a full gesture keyboard produced by a company that suddenly disappeared some years ago. It was bought by Apple. That's where gestures comes from. I was left without an efficient way to type without having my hands hurting, but I was happy to see gestures entering within the system. This part is very well programmed in Lion, although even there, a bit inconsistently throughout the very same applications Apple ships. So you left-swipe two fingers to turn a page in iCal, but you cannot left-swipe to turn a page in Address Book).


Oh well. I stop. Promised.

Disable autosave

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