Saving Documents


After creating a new document or making changes to a document you opened, you need to save the document on disk for the changes to persist. Make sure that the document’s window is active (in front of other document windows) and choose File Save or File Save As. For a new document, either of these commands displays a dialog in which you name the document

and select the folder where you want it saved. For a previously saved document, the Save command does not bring up a dialog; the application automatically saves the changed document in place of the previously saved document (replacing the original with this modified version). The Save As command always brings up the dialog so that you can rename and/or relocate the edited version, so that you can preserve the original and the modified file.

Tip

While you are entering a name for the document to save in a Save dialog, the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands are available from the Edit menu. This means that you can copy a name for a document from within the document before choosing the Save command, and then you can paste the copied name into the dialog. Instead of using the Edit menu, you can also use the keyboard equivalents: z-X for Cut, z-C for Copy, and z-V for Paste.

The Save dialog has a simple form and an expanded form. You switch between the simple form and the expanded form by clicking the disclosure triangle, which is next to the pop-up menu labeled Where. Figure 5-14 shows an example of a simple Save dialog and an expanded Save dialog.

click to expand
Figure 5-14: Click the disclosure button to switch between the simple Save dialog (first image) and the expanded Save dialog (second image).

A Save dialog has a pop-up menu giving you the choice of the current folder, the desktop, your home folder, and a hierarchical menu to your iDisk. This pop-up menu also lists recently used folders. In addition, the Save dialog has a text box where you enter the name for the document. The Save dialog may have an option for hiding the name extension, and the dialog may have other controls for setting document format options.

The location browser visible in the expanded Save dialog works just like the browser in the Open dialog. The option exists to navigate in list view or column view. In column view, each column shows the contents of a folder, and clicking a folder causes its contents to appear in the next column to the right. You can scroll left to see folders closer to the Computer level or scroll right to see the currently selected folder. In list view, double clicking folders will take you deeper within the hierarchy. The pull-down menu available at the top of the window will populate with the file hierarchy in addition to a few standard items. As you go deeper, the pull-down extends to offer you a way up to higher levels.

You can quickly go to a file or a folder in a Save dialog’s file browser if you can see the file or folder outside the dialog on the Desktop or in a Finder window. All you need to do is drag the file or folder to the dialog.

The Save dialog is also resizable. Drag the resize control at the lower-right corner to make the dialog larger or smaller.

In some applications, the Save dialog is a sheet that’s attached to the window of the document being saved. In other applications the Save dialog is independent, and you can move it by dragging its title bar.

Tip

Some Mac OS X applications indicate that a document has unsaved changes by displaying a small dot at the center of the document window’s Close button. (Applications built on the Cocoa framework do this.)




Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition
Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition
ISBN: 0764543997
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 290

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net