[OS X TeX] Trepidations using auto-save in lion

[Chris Goedde]

On Apr 9, 2013, at 7:55 PM, Warren Nagourney <wna at u.washington.edu> wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> As a longtime user of TeXshop, I recently purchased an Intel-based mac (my first) and am using Mountain Lion, which has a completely new approach to document saving, etc.  Being somewhat conservative, I initially turned off "autosave" and found that the behavior of TeXshop 3.11 was strange, to say the least. First, it didn't seem to save the source files when typesetting -- the dot remained in the save button and I was asked whether I wanted to save the files when I exited. 

What do you mean, you "turned off autosave"? I wasn't aware you could do that. Do you mean you checked the box in the General tab of System Prefs that says "Ask to keep changes when closing documents"? That doesn't turn off autosave, it just does what it says. So if you did that, it would explain why you were asked to save when you exited. I would recommend leaving this unchecked.

> The reason for my reluctance to use autosave is a feeling that I might accidentally touch the keyboard and put some garbage in a file without being aware of it and having it become permanent (via autosaving). I am in the process of editing the second edition of a book I am writing and I need to be very careful not to not do this. 

You can lock documents to prevent changes. Click on the small triangle that appears when the cursor is near the document's name in the title bar and choose "Lock". There doesn't seem to be a menu item or keyboard shortcut for this, unfortunately. Documents used to auto-lock after two weeks but Apple turned that off, I guess too many people thought it was annoying. 

Chris