Section 6.4. Saving Documents


6.4. Saving Documents

In a few programs, such as the Calculator or Solitaire, you don't actually create any documents; when you close the window, no trace of your work remains.

Most programs, however, are designed to create documents files that you can reopen for further editing, send to other people, back up on another disk, and so on.

That's why these programs offer File Save and File Open commands, which let you preserve the work youve done, saving it onto the hard drive as a new file icon so that you can return to it later.

6.4.1. The Save Dialog Box

When you choose File Save for the first time, youre asked where you want the new document stored on your hard drive (Figure 6-2). In Windows Vista, this Save As dialog box is crystal-clear; in fact, for the first time in Windows history it's now a full Explorer window , complete with taskbar, Navigation pane, Search box, Views menu, and Organize menu. All of the skills you've picked up working at the desktop come into play here; you can even delete a file or folder right from within the Save or Open box. (The Delete command is in the Organize menu.)

Figure 6-2. When the Save box first opens, it may appear in the collapsed form shown at top. Click the Browse Folders button to expand it into the full-blown dialog box shown at bottom. Type a name , choose a folder location, and specify the format for the file you're saving.


To give it a try, launch any Windows program that has a Save or Export commandWordPad , for example. (Not all programs from other software companies have updated their Save dialog boxes yet.) Type a couple of words and then choose File Save. The Save As dialog box appears (Figure 6-2).

6.4.2. Saving into Your Documents Folder

The first time you use the File Save command to save a file, Windows suggests putting your newly created document in your Documents folder.

For many people, this is an excellent suggestion. First, it means that your file won't accidentally fall into some deeply nested folder where you'll never see it again. Instead, it will be waiting in the Documents folder, which is very difficult to lose.

Second, the Documents folder is also what Windows displays whenever you use a program's File Open command. In other words, the Documents folder saves you time both when creating a new file and when retrieving it.


Tip: If the Documents folder becomes cluttered, feel free to make subfolders inside it to hold your various projects. You could even create a different default folder in Documents for each program.

6.4.3. Saving into Other Folders

Still, the now-familiar Navigation pane (Section 3.3.4) also appears in the Save dialog box. (At least it does in the Save box's expanded form; see Figure 6-2.) So do the Address bar (Section 3.2.1) and the Search box. You always have direct access to other places where you might want to save a newly created file.

All the usual keyboard shortcuts apply: Alt+up arrow, for example, to open the folder that contains the current one. There's even a New Folder button on the toolbar, so you can generate a new, empty folder in the current list of files and folders. Windows asks you to name it.

6.4.4. The File Format Drop-Down Menu

The Save As dialog box in many programs offers a menu of file formats (usually referred to as file types ) below or next to the "File name" text box. Use this drop-down menu when preparing a document for use by somebody whose computer doesn't have the same software.

For example, if you've typed something in Microsoft Word, you can use this menu to generate a Web page document or a Rich Text Format document that you can open with almost any standard word processor or page-layout program.




Windows Vista for Starters
Windows Vista for Starters: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596528264
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 175
Authors: David Pogue

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