Blank file name when choosing 'save as'

[kieran.p.hood]

Hello,

I have Works 8.5. If I open a file and work on it and choose file>save
as it always has a blank file name as opposed to having the name of the
file pre populated in the file name box.

Can anyone please please help me with this?

Kind Regards,

Kieran

 

[Gordon]

Hello,

I have Works 8.5. If I open a file and work on it and choose file>save
as it always has a blank file name as opposed to having the name of the
file pre populated in the file name box.

Can anyone please please help me with this?

That's normal behaviour with any application - the assumption being that
if you choose "Save" then you want to save the file with the current
name, if you choose "Save As" then you want to save it with a DIFFERENT
name....

 

[kieran.p.hood]

That's normal behaviour with any application - the assumption being that
if you choose "Save" then you want to save the file with the current
name, if you choose "Save As" then you want to save it with a DIFFERENT
name....

I fully agree - it's not for me, it's for someone I'm doing techsupport
for. Any other application, when you click 'save as' it already has
the name of the file there, like in Word for example. This guy I'm
supposedly helping is 'insisting' I get this to work 'properly' for
him. Apparently it was ok in earlier versions of Works?

Is there anyway I can tweak this?

 

[Daniel Crichton]

I fully agree - it's not for me, it's for someone I'm doing techsupport
for. Any other application, when you click 'save as' it already has
the name of the file there, like in Word for example. This guy I'm
supposedly helping is 'insisting' I get this to work 'properly' for
him. Apparently it was ok in earlier versions of Works?

Is there anyway I can tweak this?

Unlikely.

Dan

 

[Curt Christianson]

Hi Kieran,

With all due respect to you and your customer, how in the devil is the
computer supposed to know the name of the file anyway? As far as I know,
*all* files are labeled as "untitled" until one assigns a name to it. These
machines are incredibly "smart", but they haven't reached the mindreading
stage yet. ;-)

Please no arguments about "autocomplete", that is not mindreading! <g>

 

[kieran.p.hood]

Hello.

No, what I mean is, if I had a file that I'd already saved called "File
1" (a creative name i know) and I open this file and do "save as", in
most programs such as the Microsoft Office suite, the filename would
already be written, but in Microsoft Works the file name is blank,
eventhough it currently has a name.

No big deal to me, but this guy I'm doing techsupport for is going
crazy at me to "fix it".

It seems strange that in say, Word, the file name is pre populated, but
in Works it isn't. Though apparently in his old version of Works
(version 5) this was not an issue.

 

[Malke]

Hello.

No, what I mean is, if I had a file that I'd already saved called
"File 1" (a creative name i know) and I open this file and do "save
as", in most programs such as the Microsoft Office suite, the filename
would already be written, but in Microsoft Works the file name is
blank, eventhough it currently has a name.

No big deal to me, but this guy I'm doing techsupport for is going
crazy at me to "fix it".

It seems strange that in say, Word, the file name is pre populated,
but
in Works it isn't. Though apparently in his old version of Works
(version 5) this was not an issue.

You can try posting the question in the Works newsgroup. If you get the
same answer there - "this is just the way it is" - then you will need
to tell your customer "this is just the way it is". It's tough when we
have to do that, but sometimes that's just the way things work.

microsoft.public.works.win

Malke

 

[Daniel Crichton]

No, what I mean is, if I had a file that I'd already saved called "File
1" (a creative name i know) and I open this file and do "save as", in
most programs such as the Microsoft Office suite, the filename would
already be written, but in Microsoft Works the file name is blank,
eventhough it currently has a name.

No big deal to me, but this guy I'm doing techsupport for is going
crazy at me to "fix it".

It seems strange that in say, Word, the file name is pre populated, but
in Works it isn't. Though apparently in his old version of Works
(version 5) this was not an issue.

Can he not just continue to use Works 5 if this is such a critical problem?

While having the Save As pre-populated with the original filename, it does
pose a problem - those users who blindly hit Enter and end up overwriting
the original file. Maybe this is why MS changed the way the new version of
Works handles Save As. Maybe they'll do the same in Office 2007 ...

You've really got 4 options:

(1) Get customer to use old version of Works

(2) Get Microsoft to change current version of Works

(3) Write an application that uses API calls to watch for Save As dialogs in
Works with an empty filename control, capture the filename from the parent
Works window (haven't got Works here, but does it show the filename in the
application title bar? If so it can be captured), and write that into the
Save As filename control.

(4) Convince customer that it's not possible and to live with the change,
and to direct complaints to Microsoft


Option (3) will get the customer what he wants, but will depend on whether
you have the level of programming know-how to pull it off, or can get
someone else to do it (I'd offer, but my API programming experience is
limited being a VB programmer, and I'd need a copy of Works to test and
debug the application and I don't have one). Option (1) is simpler and the
customer gets the result he wants (Save As with filename), but also the most
impractical. Option (2) is the "not a chance in hell" suggestion, but for
completeness I had to add it. Option (4) is the most reasonable given that
you're not able to do (3).

Dan

 

[Curt Christianson]

kieran,

I just wrote a JUNK.WPS file in Works 8. Closed the file , then went to
File>Open, and junk.wps was indeed one of the files I could choose from.

--
Curt BD-MVBT

http://dundats.mvps.org/
http://www.aumha.org/

 

[Elmo]

kieran,

I just wrote a JUNK.WPS file in Works 8. Closed the file, then went to
File, Open, and junk.wps was indeed one of the files I could choose from.

But open junk.wps, edit it, click File, Save As, and you'll notice that
junk.wps is the highlighted name in the "File name" box. On the client
machine, the name isn't there and he needs to type it in, edit its name,
or redirect it to another folder. That's quite an inconvenience, I'd
imagine.

 

[Rock]

Hello,

I have Works 8.5. If I open a file and work on it and choose file>save
as it always has a blank file name as opposed to having the name of the
file pre populated in the file name box.

Maybe ask in a works newsgroup? List of MS Public newsgroups:
http://aumha.org/nntp.htm