Disable autosave

Tim,

If adding a movie to keynote takes "a good minute or so" to save, that is a bug in Keynote. Send Feedback to Apple so they can improve the performance of Keynote.

Bug or not, I have the same problem with Numbers. It's a medium sized document but it takes a second or two to save.

Here is the problem: Everytime the document window was out of focus (the cursor was in another window) and I want to continue editnig, I can type exactly one character. Then autosave pops up the save progress bar and kicks out my cursor. What I have typed is not taken over. I have fied this as a bug but I doubt that It can be fixed. It's a fundamental problem of saving speed.

This is exactly my issue in keynote. Its not a bug i dont think as it was fine before the upgrade, its a simple fact of saving any presentataion that is large, autosave, or manual, its still takes a while if the presntation is big, to have this happen at every stage of an edit is just impossible. I cant understand why Apple have not seen this issue as Steve Jobs used keynote.

Ph well, lets hope its noticed. Can we maybe all feed back so they do something? I have just filled in the feed back form on Apple supprt

Thanks

Tim

I filed it already.

Either they don't use their software themselves the way we do or the just accept that people with slightly larger files get a problem now.

I have a C2D with 4 GB Ram and this issue occurs in a 2 MB Numbers file.

Steven, yes a duplicated file still gets autosaved to the cache, but it seems the save is faster (only a single version??). This is of course a very subjective observation and might not apply to all situations or all AS-enabled applications. As for me, with the duplication my stress-level got reduced.

Back to Lion and searching for third party alternatives for text edit and preview. Let's hope there will be a global setting in the future. Auto-save and versioning could be the default but should be optional. I used textedit to edit config files and take some notes, and Preview to crop images, resize and adjust colors. With the new features they are almost useless: much slower (when croping a very large image) and they keep opening old files that I don't need anymore. To add I have Macbook air with SSD and disk space is a precious thing, should now be eaten by useless files... It's my final statement on the issue.

Well, I agree with all of you. I am so scared to lose a file now that I make copies of all of them before doing anyting.

So when I just had to "save as" before, now I have to duplicate, rename the file, and erase the old one.

I agree also that unless you're a genius and can memorise a 100 pages document, using Versions makes no senses as no human being can remember where exactly he modified one word among thousands of words, at what time, on what page, in what version.

If Version cannot be disabled system-wide, I see no other option but to go back to Snow Leopard, because having an OS that plays around with my files is simply unacceptable.

So until Apple fixes it, I recommend to anyone who actually does serious work with a Mac to duplicate every files before doing anyting... you don't want to send a client a file where you forgot that page 36, line 12, word 128, you modified the contract and did not realize that OS X saved it without notice.

Altazon,

You can take some shortcuts. Duplicate the file, get it the way you like, then close/save. In the save dialog, you'll see your old file. CLick it, that will set the name of the file you are saving to that file (this works in 10.6 as well) Then click save, and it'll ask if you want to replace. You can then close both files. If you try to save the original, you'll get a warning.

And Versions doesn't have a search yet, but it is not hard to imaging that it will at some point. Interestingly, for Text Edit, command-F works in the Versions UI, but it only searches the current window. I bet we see that change before long.

Thanks Steven, I'll give it a try.

But I think Versions should work the other way around, let me explain.

You open a file, modify it. But you don't like what you did, so you close the file without changing anyting. However, later, you realize that some changes you did not save were not that bad after all. So you open your file again, and thanks to Versions, you can go back to the changes you tried and decide whether to keep them or not.

This way, your original file is never modified wihtout your permission, but you can still access the "history" of the changes you tried.

Well, Version is definitely not for me. Apple wants the user not to worry to close a file without saving, but now it is the opposite, the user worries to OPEN a file !!!

It's very strange as Apple policy is to make things simple for the common user. But Version does the complete opposite, only power users can really understand how Version works.

If a file is super important, you can lock it, so editing it will prompt you to duplicate or unlock.

I don't think it takes a power user to understand how Versions works. Actually, most people complaining are power users because the system is saving for them.

The old way was "twiddle making changes, hoping you didn't hit command-s out of habit (and save) or crash/lose power (losing work)" The new way makes the content the most important, and you can go back in time and undo if you have to (after all, one auto save is just one version away)

I think the more people use it, and the more Apple and others make the apps save faster, opinions might change, along with workflow. Of course, auto-save/versions won't make sense for Photoshop or video editing (well maybe for the projects it would)

Yes, but as mentioned here (or elsewhere, it's getting hard to tell) the versions are lost when the file is moved: to another folder or to another machine, without warning!

Versions would be great for photoshop and other apps if the versions were portable. Not sure why Apple decided to go the SQL/location dependant route. Maybe its just a bug. 😉

Well, let's see if I can get used to it, sometimes it takes a while to change years of habits.

But anyway, I will probably have to go back to Snow Leopard for several other reasons (Mail crashes, my home network devices are not supported, pinch to zoom in folders is gone, battery life is lower, and so on...).

I used to be a Windows power user, and I have to admit, Windows is somehow a bit more complicated to use than OS X, but at least Windows offers tons of features, and you're free to use them or not, while Apple simply decides what is supposed to be best for you.

I bought a 2000$ Macbook Air, and I have to use my girlfriends 300$ netbook running on Windows for some specific usage, that the Mac could totally perform if the OS would allow the user to chooser what to activate or not.

Sorry, I'm a bit off topic, but Lion is really getting on my nerves. Apple claimed to add 250 features, but "forgot" to mention all the features that would be removed, and I don't appreciate that at all.

"I don't think it takes a power user to understand how Versions works. Actually, most people complaining are power users because the system is saving for them."

No, you don't need to be a power user to understand how it works, but it does seem that you need to crawl into the mindset of a half-wit to see why it is now universal. I can tell you one use case where it does not make sense and it hinders performance:

I have large Numbers financial documents, that are paired with very large Pages financial reports (200-300 pages). Both are password protected (think in terms of 30 characters or so). Now, when I open a document, I do so knowing what I want to do with it - I don't need a "locked" document. That is just silly. Now then, with several documents open, and autosave interrupting about every 5 minutes to slug out the most minuscule of changes on my SSD drive, that really ticks me off. And what also ticks me off is now I have many versions of password protected documents - absolutely useless. If I keep my documents open for a 12 hour day and actually use them as I do that is 144 minimum password protected 300 page Pages documents that I have no idea where I made changes, as I do so throughout; and even if I did, I don't really like typing in a 30 character passwords to see each one and then scroll through each one to see if it that is that special one.

And I do question where the so-called "delta changes" are being stored. Are they truly secure? It really doesn't matter because the whole thing is a mess. What really ticks me off though is that I really don't have an option to go back to SL since I also use the platform for development - guess what platform is the best to develop off of, - right, the most recent. Given the humongous oversight of Apple in regards to this issue, it really makes me question their "progressiveness".

I can live with the fact that Launchpad, the dock, the application folder in a stack, and Finder / Apps are four ways to get at the same thing...but I get to choose. Why Apple thinks forcing users to automatic save and versions is beyond me and I wish people would quit trying to blow smoke up my backside and tell me it is sunshine on my shoulders.

But - again - in reagrds to autosave and versions, sInce Apple seems delusional in their approach, I will match with approprate quote: "If a change is made that is large enough to alter permanently a long-term trend, then the consequences for the society as a whole cannot be predicted in advance" (ted kaczynski, manifesto).

If autosave and versions are not corrected, then I am looking at a major change in the way I do business and will be looking at other operating systems (from other vendors) and leave Lion (currently aka Apple's Vista) and Apple for good.

I can't agree more. You pointed out the limit of the new features, with a great example.

I hope Apple will read your comment, as it really makes sense.

Regarding your specific case, well, you may have to go back to Snow Leopard, risking to lose all your Numbers documents is just too risky. Even if Snow Leopard is not the last platform anymore for a developer, it's better than loosing all your work.

For me, I simply use Microsoft Office, as Versions does not work with it, so no chance to see my files erased by the OS. I'm actually going to do so for everything, use third partie apps that do not use Version.

I became a Mac user just 3 months ago, and I was actually quite satisfied. Since I installed Lion, I start regreting switching to Mac... please tell me I'm wrong to think of switching back to Windows 7.

I would also greatly appreciate the ability to remove autosave. I already sent apple feedback. Please everyone send Apple feedback. Sometimes they actually do listen.

In my case things are complicated by the fact that Apple also removed save as and replaced it with 'duplicate' and 'export'. Two functions which basically split the role of Save As in two. I need to both duplicate a file and specify its location and NOT have to then go find that duplicated file a lot of the time and Save As did this in one step. With either duplicate or export it now take two steps??? Not sure why that is necessary.

And I now have to deal with locked pdf files all the time or risk saving changes I didn't want without warning (if I disable locked files in preferences). Having the 'this file is locked warning' is annoying at best and of course saving changes I don't want and don't care to keep track of so I can find the right 'version' is also not ideal.

Really I don't understand how Apple could insert this very different way of dealing file management into an OS (and remember in their ideal world soon all apps with behave this way) without giving users the option to turn it off. I mean they realized the reverse scrolling might be disruptive (it is completely useless) and they gave people the option to disable resume. Autosave/Versions seems like the other obvious candidate.

I am trying REALLY hard to like Lion if only because I like mac laptops and would like to buy one again in the future. Why must Apple make that so hard?!