What happened to Save As?

An Interesting article in the Globe and mail. (key paragraph inserted below)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/gadgets-and-gear/gadgets/a-contrast-in -laptop-extremes-macbook-pro-vs-chromebook/article4495487/?page=2

Some users will complain that, over the years, the Apple computer operating system has been watered down somewhat to look and feel more like the Apple mobile operating system. And in many ways, those users are right. But it isn’t just Apple that’s doing this. Take a look at the current preview version of Windows 8, the full version of which launches this fall – it’s primarily an operating system designed for tablets and phones, with the desktop a secondary concern (Microsoft will claim Windows 8 is equally perfect for both uses, but they’re wrong). The two major consumer operating system designers are slowly but surely giving you a little less control over the inner workings of your software in exchange for a more seamless user experience. If you’re a die-hard tech-head who doesn’t like this trend, keep in mind that you’re not the target demographic any more. The real money for tech companies is in convincing technology-phobic users to pony up thousands of dollars on easy-to-use, one-touch-and-you’re-done devices.

cheers Elo ( but please keep save as)

All operating systems have had a basic level and an advanced level. Some users can do more than others. What will win is not the simple operating system, or the advanced one. It is the operating system that makes both users happy. You can have an iPhone and you can read your mail on it. There are also some advanced settings in the mail account screens. They are not on the first screen but they are there. So basic users are happy and so am I. If they were not there (and could easily be there) I would be angry. You can go into a McDonalds and ask for no cheese on your Big Mac. They will make it. Most people don't ask for that but McDonalds understands that you have to please most customers, not just the basic ones. Apple does not understand that over time most people become more advanced users. They learn new tricks, they play with settings, over time. Sure some users will be happy without choice, but many want to know it is there if they want it. The more Apple reduces features the more they miss the point of Steve Jobs. It was never about reducing functionality, it was about building a layer that was easy for the uninitiated to start using the product, and over time learn the more advanced features. In time these new operating systems will fail as people look for more functionality. Already Apps make the iPad more usable. People search for what they want. If there is no file browser someone else will make one and people will use it. Whatever these companies do to try to dumb down their systems, users will find ways to make them smarter.

Kurt Lang wrote:

They did the same thing with the command for a new folder. Why couldn't the new command be Command+Shift+N and leave the one people had been using for well over a decade as Command+N?

At least that one's an easy fix. You just need to add a couple of lines to the com.apple.finder.plist file of your user account to reverse it back to "normal".

Hi Kurt, now that I think about it, they did that because of a conjunction of two other changes. Hitting command-F used to open the sherlock dialog box all ready for a find-by-file-name search. On SL you have to hit command-shift-F to get find by name. The problem was that the search replaces your active window, which you loose. To get a clean find by name search you have to hit command-N followed by command-shift-F. So I guess the old command-N got relegated to command-shft-N becuase of the number of times you have to generate a new finder window under the new regiem, ie post OS9.2 (the acme of computing IMHO😝)

OK, so now command-shift-F is gone in L and ML and we are busted back to the days of 10.3 when you had to do command-shift-F followed by a mouse action to get a find by file name. This brings me to my question. You provide a nice string for the finder plist. Do you know of a way to make the ML finder open a search with the "name" field pre-selected? I have tried all sorts of superficial workarounds like creating a smart folder in the side bar, but they all open with the default find by content search. Alternatively, a way of having spotlight place those files with the search term in their name at the top of the hit list. That would seem a sensible alternative to the list of garbage I get at the moment.

(Of course, if you have movies and photos fulling your HD, you are not nearly so badly troubled by this behavior because they don't have any searchable content. But if you have GB of text files you are in trouble.)

(Mark, I looked at one at the Beachwalk in Kuta. Nice screen. I need the Air plus a 27 inch screen for my work as I travel a lot and look at large spreadsheets. I hope yours does not creak? I read your post on the other forum.)

Steve, my brother who travels a lot has had an Air for more than a year and loves it. He uses nothing else. The resolution is so good that he says the 11 inch screen is all he needs. For me I like a decent size screen.

I was waiting for the new macs to arrive in Indonesia and grabbed a rMBP when I happened to be in Jakarta last week (We no longer deal with the Bali distributor).

I'm very pleased so far - love the screen and the speed of the solid state memory. No it does NOT creak - I tried to make it creak to find out what the fuss was about but failed. I asked the dealer if they had had any complaints about creaking and he said he hadn't heard of any. I think they make the creaky ones for the U.S. market; you see, taking stuff back at least once is all part of the consumer retail therapy experience.

I realise we are in the wrong thread with this subject. Should be in the creaky thread. Given the choice I would accept a creak if I could have "Save as.." back. There we are - relevant to this thread now.

(I am waiting before buying for the event on the 12th where Apple are going to announce some major new news. I believe they are going to announce the return of the Real Save-As and an ON/OFF button for versions. Just joking. I was planning to get an Air with 8GB you have to preorder. I was thinking to do that in Bali as it takes a few weeks to arrive.)

(Mark, sorry I meant 8MB RAM not 8GB.The 11 inch Air as the sceen is practically retina anyway. Now that the ivy brindge chip is there I can run 3x27 inch screens which I may need to do in the future. I'm just waiting to see what happens with the product launch on the 12th before I buy anything. The 27 inch screens might be updated for example.)

>What happened to Save-As? It died with Steve Jobs.

>As did all the Apple care for the customer over profits.

Well may the future is not that dark, although there are omnious signs of course.

We as Apple/ Mac consumers should not resign to the state of affairs, but instead

tell the big guys how we want / need to work with the OS,

with the option of a true Save-As, and

to be able to opt out of the AutoSave - Versions- labyrint, if we choose!

/ Omar KN

This thread turns out to be an argumentative thread of (possibly?) some expert programmers.

There is no direct help here for a user.

It appears Apple has deliberately removed the "Save As" choice.

There may be a simple work around.

That work around may be burried somewhere in this long, long, thread.

My suggestion to a user is look elswhere.

Ted -1 wrote:

It appears Apple has deliberately removed the "Save As" choice.

Thank you very much, Captain Obvious. Your razor-sharp insight is much appreciated.

There may be a simple work around.

That work around may be burried somewhere in this long, long, thread.

My suggestion to a user is look elswhere.

If you had bothered to actually look at just a few representative samples from this "long, long thread," you would have found that there IS no "simple work around" for the loss of Save As.

Um, that's why we're still here talking about it. Why would we be doing this otherwise?

My suggestion is that you go "elswhere" and favor the fortunate souls in some other thread with your pearls of wisdom.

Ted-1.

The simple solution is this.

1. Save the document you are in.

2. Duplicate the document.

3. Navigate to the folder you had the original document in.

4. Save the duplicated document with the new file name, deleting the "copy 1" added to the original file name.

5. Select the original document.

6. Locate the versions menu using the tiny arrow at the top next to the name.

7. Select Browse All Versions.

8. Wait for the Star Wars floating stars background to appear.

9. Select the file image on the right side.

10. Navgate back in time by scolling, arrows or moving your cursor to the tiny time bars on the right edge.

11. Determine from this one tiny page at a time view which was the version when you opened the document.

12. Select that version of the document.

13. Close the original document.

You will now have achieved the same outcome as the old Save-As would have achieved. If you are on Mountain Lion then you have the Save-As function and you have to use that for steps 1-4 then you can start at step 5 here to create what Save-As used to do. I hope this helps you. If not there is another work around offered by user Yvan Koenig which is called the "get over it" solution. I am sure he will love to explain it to you.

Steve.

Steve,

Thank You!

I will follow your suggestions, until I figure out a new behavior for this type of file naming.

The 'Save As' use has been ingrained into my regular computer use in the past. It's loss wil require me to learn some new skills.

I can appreciate the "get over it" solution. It may come from frustration. Certainly the desire to help may have been drummed out of some individuals. We've all been there.

In any case, thanks again for the numbered list of actions.

Ted.

I think that Apple should get over it and give us back what we want. But that is just me being negative. Good luck with your 13 steps compared to 3 for Save-As. You can always buy a PC, use Snow Leopard or kidnap Tim Cook and blackmail Apple into fixing Save-As or you won't give him back. Actually they might tell you to just keep him. (Just a joke ok).

Steve is obviously a better man than I. If your entry into this thread had come with a bit less attitude, I might have had a "desire to help" too.

In any case, a 13-step routine for something that used to take two steps doesn't exactly fit the definition of a "simple solution." That's why we're still here, and still not in the best of moods.

I've used the Mac OS exclusively since 1988 and have shouted its praises to the heavens for just as long. I find myself now in the very unusual and uncomfortable position of being really P.O.-ed at the platform I love and rely upon in both my work and my personal life.

As I noted in an earlier post, the loss of Save As is the principal reason...but there are others as well.

DChord568, I think I have a darker sense of humor, and maybe my criticism was more subtle. Which makes me being thanked for it a bit more funny. I advised someone else to chat to YK and they also thanked me not really understanding that this was criticism. Anyway I admire his desire to engage in the 13 steps. I'm thinking of not buying an Air and getting an old 27 inch iMac to run Snow Leopard. I have just had enough of opening Pages documents, looking at them, closing them and Lion asking me if I want to save them, when I changed nothing. Perhaps this is because I refused to upgrade iWorks (Pages and Numbers) and still run them with Save-As and no Versions by not upgrading. Maybe that is the Apple way to punish me for not upgrading (downgrading) them. Anyway, Apple in 10 years time will be going into a second bankruptcy if they don't change their ways. Just like they did the last time Steve Jobs left. Sad but true.