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December 13, 2006

tips

A (hopefully temporary) Pages auto-save solution

Posted Dec. 13, ’06, 1:59 PM PT by Scott Silverman
Category | Tips

PagesRecently, I’ve abandoned Microsoft Word for my word processing needs. While there are certainly some functions which work better in Word, for the basic paper writing process I prefer to use iWork 06’s Pages application. It’s much simpler, has a stream-lined interface, and produces a prettier end product (like automatic word hyphenations). This afternoon, however, I ran into an issue: Pages will not auto-save my work. That means that after a 50 minute writing spree I could potentially be placed back to stage one, unless I saved somewhere in those 50 minutes (which, let’s be honest, is a rare occurrence).

For a solution I turned to my favorite Apple app resource, the Discussions. There I found quite a handy little AppleScript which will tell Pages to automatically save on any interval of your choosing (I chose five minutes). The AppleScript (saved as an application) will automatically launch Pages and invoke the saving. Thus, rather than having to start Pages and then remember to run my little auto-save AppleScript as well, I came up with a simpler solution.

Once I had the AppleScript saved as an application, I placed it inside the iWork folder (Applications > iWork ‘06). Then I used a free download of File Buddy to replace the standard AppleScript icon with the Pages icon (shown above). Then I simply dragged the AppleScript application onto my dock where my Pages shortcut normally sits. Now every time I click the Pages icon in my dock, the application is launched and the AppleScript runs. Now how creative is that? (I’m still hoping that Apple includes auto-save in iWork ‘07, however.)


4 Comments

James Carey said:

Unless I'm missing something about File Buddy, you could surely have just hit Command+I on pages, selected the icon in the viewer and copied it. Then bring up the info window for the applescript app and select the icon there and paste the Pages icon over it?

But I like this sort of hint, I did it with an applescript I wanted to launch Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings and start playing my Eno playlist in iTunes. You should rename the applescript "Pages" and Pages itself something else and refresh your launcher too, so you can launch it in all instances - I rarely launch apps from the dock these days.

I do go on don't I?

December 13, 2006 2:17 PM
Joel said:

I'm glad others are ditching word for pages. I think pages is a superior product that was built from the groudn up for PDF output. Word can't do dynamic text wrapping around graphics like Pages can. My one quib... I wish there were a default set of text and color options available in the main window... cycling through the info pannel is tedious!

December 13, 2006 7:55 PM
Fletcher said:

I have gotten into the habit of reflexively hitting the Command-S key combination every time I pause. If you get into the habit of saving frequently then you rarely lose much work.

Of course, I do occasionally use the key combination in Safari in a misguided attempt to save a form in progress and have to dismiss the ensuing dialog.

December 14, 2006 12:23 AM
Walt Basil said:

Like Fletcher, I've grown accustomed to Command-S. I can thank Windows & Word (Control-S) for that, but maybe I'm lucky it has carried over?

December 14, 2006 5:04 AM

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