Save Your Work

This page covers saving a document, choosing where a new document goes the first time you save it, what happens when a file changed after you opened it, and closing a document with unsaved changes.

Save a document#

Choose Save (the save button in the toolbar). It is available when the document has unsaved changes, and for a document that has never been saved, even before you type anything. The bar at the bottom of the window shows Edited until you save.

On Mac: choose File ▸ Save, or press ⌘S. For a document that has never been saved, the menu item reads Save….

On Vision Pro, iPad and iPhone, with a keyboard, ⌘S does what Save does: a document that has never been saved asks where to save it.

A save keeps the file's text encoding and its line endings as they were when you opened it, so saving an unchanged file leaves it byte for byte the same. A file on this device is written through a temporary file and then moved into place, so an interrupted save does not leave a half-written file, and a file that was executable stays executable.

Save a new document for the first time#

What you see depends on whether the window has a project open.

With a project open, a Save sheet asks for:

1. Name — the file name, including its extension.
2. Folder — the project's top folder, where it starts, or any folder its file list has already read. A folder on a server shows the machine's name after it.
3. Choose Save.

The file is written to that folder, on this device or on the server, and the tab takes its name. Its language is chosen from the new extension. If a file with that name is already in the folder, nothing is written and the sheet asks you to choose another name. On a server, the new file is uploaded under a hidden name and checked, then given its name only if that name is still free, so a half-written file never appears under it. If the server refuses, the message says why in plain words, for example that the account isn't allowed to write to that folder, and what to check.

To save somewhere outside the project, choose On This Device… in the sheet. On Mac the button reads On This Mac….

With no project open, the system's save panel opens directly.

On Mac: the save panel writes exactly the name you type — a file named .env stays .env, with no extension added.

When the file changed after you opened it#

Before every save, the Editor checks whether the file changed since you opened it — on a server, or on this device through a checkout, a build or another app. It also looks when the file's window comes forward and when you choose its tab, so you hear about a change before you edit an old copy. Each change is asked about once. If the file changed, a The file has changed message explains what it found, and offers:

• Save Anyway — replaces the file with your version.
• Discard My Changes and Reload — throws away your edits and shows the file as it is now.
• Keep Editing — saves nothing and leaves your edits in place.

If the file could not be checked at a save, the message says it may have changed and offers the same choices.

When you have no unsaved changes, there is nothing of yours to keep, so the choices are Reload and Keep Editing.

If the connection to a server drops during a save, the Editor cannot tell whether the file was replaced, and says so. Open the file again to see which version is there.

Close a document#

Close a document with its tab's close button, with Close Document (×) in the toolbar on iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro, or on Mac with ⌘W. Tabs appear once two or more documents are open. If it has unsaved changes, Close without saving? offers:

• Save — saves, then closes. A never-saved document first asks where to save it. If the save fails, or stops to ask about a file that changed, the document stays open with your changes.
• Discard Changes — closes without saving.
• Cancel — keeps the document open.

On Mac: when ⌘W closes the last document in a window with no project, the window closes too. Cancel, in the message or in the save panel, keeps both open.

Close a window with unsaved changes#

Unsaved changes are never thrown away without asking:

• On Mac, closing an editor window that has unsaved changes asks about each of those documents in turn, with the same Save, Discard Changes and Cancel. The window closes once none is left; Cancel keeps it open.
• On Mac, quitting with unsaved changes asks Quit without saving? and names the documents. Cancel brings their window forward so you can save; Quit Without Saving quits.
• On iPad and Vision Pro, a window can be closed without the app being asked. A window closed with unsaved changes keeps them: Active lists it with how many are unsaved, and choosing it brings the window back.
• Closing an editor session from Active or Show All Windows, on any device, asks Close without saving? first. Discard Changes closes it; Cancel keeps it.