In Pages I used to be able to edit a template and "save a version" to update the template. Now i have to rename the template to save the changes. Why is this happening? what happen to "save a version"? its no longer an option under "file".

Templates, Pages files with the .template extension, always have opened as an untitled documents. Just as a template in Numbers or AppleWorks (dating myself, I know) does. That's the whole idea of a template - a starting point that you can "tweak" as you'd like & leave the original unchanged. You can try one or both of the two ways I've always edited templates.

Open the template & get that untitiled document & make any changes you want & go to File > Save as Template… & give it the exact same name as the previous one. You will be asked if you want to replace the existing file.

Find the file in Finder & change the extension from .template to .pages then open the file. You can then save the file as a template which will give you two files, one .pages & one .template or go back to Finder & change the extension on the file to .template.

"Save a version" is new to Lion & Pages 4.1 & has nothing to do with templates. I think you're confusing saving a copy or Save As… with this new feature. Versions is like Time Machine for an individual document, not a template. Each time you use ⌘ S or File > Save a Version it "takes a snapshot" of the file & you can review them & revert to a particular one if you'd like.

The first time you save a new document, whether created from a template with some content or a new blank document (it's still a template), in Lion you get Save… because it never has been saved. Once it has been saved the command changes to Save a Version but they are still doing the same thing as Save has always done - save the latest changes. It's just in Lion you can go back & see the state of the document as it was at each save. It doesn't really over-write the existing document & you can go back even if you've closed the document, qiut the program & restarted your Mac, they're all still there. Auto-save also creates these versions if you haven't manually saved after a period of time (I'm not sure exactly how long).

Since my hair is already grey, it may turn white soon. 😁

I thought I was clear, this is one of the new features in Lion.

I still don't understand what you were doing before to "edit a template" since that hasn't changed for as long as I can remember. Unless you're calling a document that you use for a basis a template even though it's not really a template. I think you might be confusing Save As… which no longer appears in the File menu in Lion with Save a Version. They are not the same thing. Save As…, which allowed you to save a copy & give it a new name has been replaced with the two-step File > Duplicate then File > Save…

Templates are a special kind of document that used to be called a stationery pad. If you're reusing a document with the same basic content each time, consider saving it as a template which will then give you the one-step Save…

Or wait for Mountain Lion which will have menu items with keyboard shortcuts for Save As… & Duplicate.

It would not be the first time someone was confused witht the terminology. I've tried several ways of explaining & I just don't think it's working.

The difference in the two screenshots that I see it that the first is what you get with a document that has never been saved. Once it has been saved you get the different wording that is in the second menu. I didn't think that they were from different documents because that's not what I see as different.

Save a Version is not the same as Save As… was in previous OSes. To get to the old Save As… dialog box in Lion you need File > Duplicate then File > Save…

In your description you say the first document opens as the Title you gave it.

Templates always open as Untitled so it sounds like you have saved a regular document, perhaps into your templates folder which is possible.

Since you have already worked on it and it has been previously saved, Lion will now Save for you and Save a Version is available

The other document does open as Untitled so sounds like a real template and as Peggy has pointed out will not have either Revert nor Save a Version until you Save it and have changed something in it.

This is a classic example of just how Apple's supposedly "simplification" of the process, is leading to confusion of what has happened. That the conditions and resulting actions from those conditions is so convoluted says it all.

It all reminds me of the Monty Python Life of Brian sketch with the "simplified" John Cleese instructions to the class, as to if you have a brother in an older dorm whether to hang your hat and bag on the hooks provided. The trouble is Apple does not get the joke, that it is transforming itself into a frequently self contradictory bumbling bureacracy. The price of unchallenged self appointed geniushood.

The incoherent half baked stumbling juggernaut has reached new triumphs with its edict on enforced Sandboxing on developers when it is unable to follow even its own instructions.

Peter