TutorialsMacsTips and TricksGive me back my Save As...!

Give me back my Save As...!

In OSX 10.7 (Lion), the "Save As" option disappeared as an option for saving documents and was replaced by the combination of the "Save" command and "Duplicate". Duplicate creates a duplicate file that can be renamed and saved. This was done to prevent users accidentally overwriting a document. This feature is also part of the new Versions and Auto Save feature in OS X Lion.

However, some users cried out for the return of the familiar "Save As..." feature. So, in OSX 10.8 (Mountain Lion) the "Save As..." has made a return although it is hidden by default. This lesson shows you how to access the "Save As..." menu in any application it is avaiable for.

A bit of background on Versions and Auto Save in Lion and Mountain Lion

A bit of background on Versions and Auto Save in Lion and Mountain Lion

Long-time Mac users or those switching from a PC will notice that Lion and Mountain lion do not have the traditional "Save" and "Save As..." menu options for saving documents, but instead have "Save", "Duplicate",  and "Rename" options in their place.

The reason for this is that beginning in Lion, OSX automatically saves your documents in the background everytime it is changed. This provides a document revision and "Time Machine" like ability to undo changes to files days or weeks after those changes were made - even after  you have saved the document. So, the "Save" function has been made almost redundant.

The new "Duplicate" function takes a copy of an existing document and then prompts you to rename it so it can be saved. The new duplicated document does not have any of the revision history (snapshots) of previous changes.

The "Rename" option allows a document to be renamed while keeping all of the past versions of that document.

Auto Save and Versions Is Truly Awesome - If you know how it works

Auto Save and Versions Is Truly Awesome - If you know how it works

In apps that support AutoSave and Versions, which includes most of the Apple apps as well as many third party apps, documents are automatically saved with every change made and it is possible to return to previous major versions or changes in between.

To revert to the last saved version, you click "File > Revert To" and select the last opened version of the file. You can also Browse All Versions of the file.

Browse All Versions of a File

Browse All Versions of a File

When "Browse All Versions..." is selected from the Revert To menu, all minor revisions of that document are made available to the user. The window that displays is similar to the Time Machine backup window showing the current version of the document and the previous version selected with the day and time. On the right hand side of the menu, you can choose from all past dates of a documetn and review then restore that version. In this example, you can see I have a version dated all the way back to Sunday, 9 December 2013.

This is a very powerful feature that helps to prevent those "Oh No!" moments we've all had when editing documents.

I Don't Care - I Want "Save As..." back!

I Don't Care - I Want "Save As..." back!

OK. Now that we've seen the advantages of the new AutoSave and Versions features in Lion / Mountain Lion, some of you still will just want to use "Save As..."

Fortunately, this is now possible in Mountain Lion for you die-hard "Save As..." fans. To bring up the "Save As..." menu, all you need to do is click the Option key when in the File menu of a document. This will toggle the Duplicate option to the Save As... option.

So, there you go - Save As... returns.