The crucial difference between “Save” and “Save As”
Lisa Du is director of ReadyTechGo, a service that helps people gain the confidence and skills to embrace modern technology.
Many clients tell us that they religiously save their working documents, but these documents seem to just disappear into a black hole in their computer.
We see this a lot, where documents are not saved to a certain location, and it takes some detective work to find out where that document lives!
The answer to your woes lies in using "Save As"!
What’s the difference between clicking 'Save' vs 'Save As'?
When you choose the Save option, you are updating the last saved version of your work, so that it matches the current version that you see on your screen.
When you choose the Save As option, you will receive a prompt to:
- Name the document
- The location of your document (where is this file going to live? In last week's newsletter, we talked about replicating your paper filing system on your computer!)
Here's a good habit to get into:
- Use the Save As option when you've created a new document, and this is the first time you are saving it.
- By using Save As, you can give your new document a proper name, and file it away in the correct folder Example: Documents Folder
- Use the Save option when you are editing an existing document which already has a name and a home to live (you've already determined which folder to save the document in). When you use the Save option, it replaces the current version.