How to return the "Save As..." menu item to Preview (Fix)

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Level 1

8 points

How to return the "Save As..." menu item to Preview (Fix)

I was very disheartened to find that in more current versions of OSX for the program Preview, the "Save As..." menu item had been removed and that the "Duplicate" menu item that replaced it seemed to cause me a number of problems. I did a bit of research and found that the "Save As..." item could be found under the File menu if I hold down option when I select the menu. But that's not good enough for me and I found enough complaints about this that I can tell that I'm not the only one. Luckily I accidentally found a fix to this which I wasn't expecting.

I opened up System Preferences and selected Keyboard hoping that I could change the keyboard shortcut for "Save As..." to the three key combination that it had been (Shift-Command-S) instead of the four key combination that it now required (Shift-Option-Command-S). The "Duplicate" shortcut now uses (Shift-Command-S) so I decided to change the keyboard shortcut to that first just in case it created a conflict, so I assigned it a ridiculous combination of keys to "Duplicate" because I will never need to use that item as a shortcut. As soon as I did that, before I changed the keys to the "Save As..." shortcut, I checked the "File" menu in Preview just to make sure it showed the new combination for "Duplicate" and to my surprise, the "Save As..." menu item was listed right above it. So the issue I was looking for an alternate fix to gave me a more direct fix. I still changed the keyboard shortcut for "Save As..." to what it was in previous versions, and things are back the way I like them.

Hopefully, this will be useful to others facing this issue.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Sep 17, 2015 8:40 AM

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Answer 1

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Sep 17, 2015 4:25 PM in response to beanlynch

As noted you have resolved the issue, but you can apply it across the board for all apps by following this. works for mountain lion and above.

http://osxdaily.com/2012/08/27/enable-save-as-os-x-mountain-lion/

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Answer 2

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,994 points

Sep 17, 2015 4:25 PM in response to beanlynch

Just to note about the link Eau Rouge posted. There is an error in their instructions. Using three periods does not correctly replace OS X's internal command for Save As. It will work for some apps; will cause Save As to completely disappear in some apps; and have both show up in others.

The correct spelling to enter is:

Save As…

What's different about that you may ask? That's not three periods. It's a ellipsis. Press Option+; to produce the correct character.

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Answer 3

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,994 points

Sep 17, 2015 4:39 PM in response to beanlynch

Yes, I discovered that one back in Mountain Lion where this method of returning Save As… back to its traditional position and keystroke appeared. I had first used three periods because that what it looks like. But some apps, while it would do what I wanted (Save As… replacing Duplicate on the menu) wouldn't have the shortcut keystroke noted next to the name, and it didn't work. Plus the occasional oddity as I noted above.

Another site where I then found the proper way to do it noted that it had to be an ellipsis to work correctly across all apps.

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Answer 4

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Sep 17, 2015 11:40 PM in response to beanlynch

If you only want to implement Save As for Preview, you can do that through Keyboard Shortcuts in System Preferences. From there click All applications in the left hand column and then the + button, from the new dropdown click on the dialogue next to Application where a further dropdown will be displayed. With your Applications displayed choose Preview and complete the rest of the boxes as mentioned before. You can do this for any App individually or All Apps.

Good Luck

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Answer 5

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Sep 17, 2015 10:14 AM in response to Kurt Lang

yes that's quite right

thanks for pointing that out.

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Answer 6

rccharles

Level 6

13,037 points

Sep 17, 2015 10:22 AM in response to Eau Rouge

Great tip! Was driving me nuts not to have the save as...

They even made the default not to wreck the original in Yosemite.

R

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Answer 7

beanlynch Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 17, 2015 4:15 PM in response to Eau Rouge

Yes, thanks for clarifying that. I had to do it for all Apps. As far as I can tell there isn't an obvious way to change it just for Preview.

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Answer 8

beanlynch Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 17, 2015 4:19 PM in response to Kurt Lang

I didn't realize that they were ellipses and not periods. I used periods and it worked for me. But since you say that it won't for all Apps I changed it. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

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