Well, I'm stumped Word is saving to SuperDuper backup instead of desktop

[Sooz]

(sigh) There's probably an easy answer that eludes me. 

I have not changed ANYTHING on my computer. Saving a screenshot to my desktop is not problem. 

This morning, I saved a new Word document (Word for Mac 2011 V 14.7.2) to my desktop.No problems.

This afternoon, saving a Word document to my desktop is the issue. No longer am I able to save it to my desktop. Now, it saves to my SuperDuper iMac backup.

Here are some screenshots of where I want it saved, and where it is saved.
Thanks in advance for your help!!
Smiles,
Sooz
 

[kimmer]

Sooz, it's saving to the desktop on the SuperDuper iMac backup, and that's what is showing in the both images. Try saving a fresh copy and when the save dialogue shows up use COMMAND (apple key) D. That should take you to the desktop of your computer.

How did this happen? Is it possible that you opened a doc from your backup? Or it might just be weirdness. I go through this every time I save a new photoshop file and it wants to default to my documents photo. No idea why, and no idea how to reset it. I've just learned to navigate to where I really want to save the file.

[Xairbusdriver]

I love the way MS/Word thinks things should work, instead of the way Apple has already provided.   I don't ever use it but my wife is forever asking "What is going on, now?!"

Open a Word Document and try using the "Save as..." function (assuming even Word still has that capability). What I want you to try to do is get the Save dialog to show the full monty window. That window may be accessible even in Word, if you can see that little 'display' arrow.

The advantage of using the larger dialog is mainly that it is easier to see exactly where you are saving something. It is simply too easy, with that default dialog to overlook what's in the "Where" text, in my humble opinion, anyway...

The second image is rather large (1,000 pixels wide) and it may open in a separate window because of that.

[Sooz]

Kimmer, I quit Word, then opened it again, and Command D did the trick, although I haven't done the Save As stuff yet--and I don't know if I can save without doing Command D but I'll play with it later--thank you!

Jim, thanks for the input and the screenshots!  I'll have to try to do what you've suggested later tonight. It's getting close to time for me to do dinner prep!

Thanks, Kimmer and Jim!!!!!   

[Highmac]

Some apps, including TextEdit, no longer show Save As... in the dropdown, but it can be accessed by holding Alt down when you go to Duplicate; key combination for the Save As... is now Alt/Shift/Command/S (at least in TextEdit and Swift Publisher 5).

Hope that helps 

[Jack W]

OK, here is a weirdness I got when I clicked on Sooz's second "pic" link:

 'Where it is saved.png (13.26 kB, 590x45 - viewed 4 times.)'

I got the standard Save as dialog window on my desktop with the usual OK button.  When I clicked on it, the file saved to my default location on my computer:



??

What gives ?

Jack

[Xairbusdriver]

Command-D is the keyboard shortcut for "Desktop" when any kind of Save dialog is active.

Not sure I understand your question, Jack. Getting a "Save" dialog when opening an image is easily attainable with a control-click. But if that is happening automatically, it could be because you have set the OS (or the browser) to do that if it doesn't have an app that normally opens a jpeg (or other image format). Assuming you have a ".jpeg" file on a drive, what does the Info window have listed as an app to open it?

What do you have in the Safari Prefs->General: "File Download location:"?

[Jack W]

using ff on Snow Leopard

ok, no wise-a** comments

but normally when I click on a png or jpeg, they just display right on the
screen.
That's what the first file did on Suze's post
 
no real problem, so i think i'll just go back to my corner

[kimmer]

using ff on Snow Leopard

ok, no wise-a** comments

but normally when I click on a png or jpeg, they just display right on the
screen.
That's what the first file did on Suze's post
 
no real problem, so i think i'll just go back to my corner

Not sure why this happened, Jack. I'm running FF under 10.13.6 (High Sierra), and all the attachments in this thread open as they should. So the only thing I can think of, at the moment, is it's something to do with your older OS interacting with our board software--but I could be wrong. Just curious, do the other attachments in this thread open as they should?

[Jack W]

Hi Kimmer,

All jpeg and png files have always opened in a new window.

this is the first ever that opened with the save as dialog.

And, as I said the first png in Suzie's post showed up in a new window, as normal.  CORRECTION, I just tried again, and it also did the 'save as' trick.

Anyway, no real problem.

Thanks for the reply.

Jack

[Xairbusdriver]

Perhaps you missed the question above:

What do you have in the Safari Prefs->General: "File Download location:"?

If using a different browser, please change "Safari" to the appropriate browser name.

[kimmer]

Hi Kimmer,

All jpeg and png files have always opened in a new window.

this is the first ever that opened with the save as dialog.

And, as I said the first png in Suzie's post showed up in a new window, as normal.  CORRECTION, I just tried again, and it also did the 'save as' trick.

Anyway, no real problem.

Thanks for the reply.

Jack

Hmm, well, I'll do some research and see what I can find.

[kimmer]

Perhaps you missed the question above:

What do you have in the Safari Prefs->General: "File Download location:"?

If using a different browser, please change "Safari" to the appropriate browser name.

He's using FIREFOX (see his second post), and this is not an issue of download preferences in Firefox.

edited because it's Jack's second post, not his first.

[Paddy]

You do all realize that "save as" saves a file to the last location used - unless you actually enter a new location?

I actually use it occasionally to find things when I realize that my first "save" sent it somewhere unintended - that I didn't look carefully enough to see where it was going. Saving something the first time gives you the dialogue window where you get to choose where to save it - it may not be anywhere you WANT to save it, so you have to navigate elsewhere. Saving the same document later doesn't tell you where it's going - it just saves it by overwriting the file you saved at the outset. "Save as" allows you to save an entirely new version of the file anywhere you choose - but it will default to the location that you were using before (hence the way to find out where something went with an unintentional save) - and if you don't change that, it will likely ask you if you want to overwrite the earlier version of the file. "Save" won't ask you that.

This save/save as behaviour is consistent across all applications and on both Macs and PCs EXCEPT more recent Apple applications like TextEdit and Pages, where for some completely unknown reason, Apple decided to royally confuse people by changing the behaviour and making "save as" hidden - with "Duplicate" as the default (and leading to needless file proliferation and no choice in where it's saved, either). However, you CAN put Save As back on the menu permanently very easily - see: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/bring-back-the-save-as-command-to-your-macs-file-menu/ - I recommend doing so.

And as for saving from BROWSERS...that's a totally different proposition and the reason you're seeing "save as" instead of just "save" is that the browser offers several different ways to save a webpage or image from a webpage etc., none of them default. So it has to ask you what you want to do - not just save a particular file type as Word or Pages do. Word and Pages and lots of other apps have default file types - .docx for Word, .pages for Pages - and unless you choose "save as" you can't change the file types to something other than the default or the existing file type. Again - this is how every application works unless some idiot in UIX design decides otherwise (looking at you, Apple).

[Xairbusdriver]

While all you say is true, the question is why the perceived action of clicking an attached image, in this forum, is now asking where Jack wants to save that image. He (and the rest of us) seems to feel that that is not what we have been seeing, in the past. Indeed, he is the only one reporting that behavior; the rest of us still see one of two behaviors:

• The image simply opens in the current thread window at full size
• The image opens in a new browser window at full size.

It really has nothing to do with the various Save/Save as.../Duplicate/etc. actions.

The two above listed actions seem to be related to the actual pixel dimensions of the attachment: If the width is smaller than the current window, it will usually open inside the current window. If it is much larger, it may open in a new window.

Unfortunately, those are not hard and fast rules. In another SMF forum I visit, large (and often massively huge!) images always open in the current window regardless of the window's size. This results in the infuriating horizontal scroll bars just because the poster is too lazy to reduce the pixel width from 3,692 pixels to a more user-friendly 8-9 hundred. [See image info below. Mainly the poster is saying, "I have an iMac!". It's a full screen capture showing something a simple link to the external site would show. ]

I suspected the Safari prefs were the cause since you can set that browser to ask what should be done when it "senses" a need to download something. Usually, that "sensing" is done with the aid of the control key. A stuck or accidentally pressed control key could produce the action Jack is seeing. However, he is NOT using Safari. He IS using FF, and I do not have any useful experience with its behavior or how they might be changed.