OSX Lion, and iWorks, the latest version of the Mac operating system and office productivity suite introduced a bone-headed new idea of “automatic saving”, and eliminates the option of “Save As” in several applications, notable the Mac word processor, Pages.  

Forgive me if I seem unadaptable in my old age, but consider the steps required to create  a new version of a familiar document. 

The old way:
1. Open the document you want to duplicate
2. Select File->Save As
3. Save the file under a new name,
4. Revise  and save.  

Among other things, the clear four-step process ensures that you don’t write over an existing version of a document.  I do this all the time.

Now, consider the new way. 
1. Open the document you want to duplicate
2. Select File->Duplicate
This opens a new version of the document with the same file name with the word “copy” appended to the original file name. 
3. Switch back to the original document and close it.
4. Switch to the copy.
5. Select file->Save… (since the copy has yet to be saved, the menu option has changed from “Save a Version” to “Save”. 
6. Rename the duplicate file to something useful, i.e. remove “copy” that the program appends to the file name, and make changes.
7. Select “Save” at the bottom of the dialog
8. Begin making revisions.  The program automatically saves periodically.   

THIS IS INSANE.   Who made this up?  And are they still working at Apple?

Update: August 2012: The successor to Lion… (Mountain Lion), has partially restored Save As…. if you hold down the Option key, when displaying the File Menu….. its back! Or if you are a keyboard shortcut person,  the keyboard combination of Shift+Option+Command+S will Save As.  (That takes two hands, for me).

Still, since the earlier change still seems incredibly stupid,   I can’t quite understand why they don’t reverse it and make Save As the default, and then evaluate whether anyone uses the Duplicate command…which takes so many additional steps.