Autosaviour Document Settings

The dialog appears when a document is open and the Settings... button on the panel is clicked, or the menu item File > Autosaviour Settings... is chosen, or when the New Document Setting Ask For Settings is enabled and a new document is created. It controls the Autosaviour settings for the current document only. 

Autosaviour Document Settings Dialog

1. Enable Autosave/Remind

When enabled, autosaving or reminding will occur. This setting can be enabled or disabled directly from the panel without having to open the dialog if the expanded panel is used.

2. Time Interval

Specifies how long that Autosaviour should wait after the document becomes modified before autosaving or reminding takes place. The default value is 10 minutes, but can be changed from 0.25 minutes (i.e., 15 seconds) to 180 minutes (3 hours). 

3. Autosave/Just Remind

Chooses between actually autosaving the document when the specified time interval has passed, or just showing a small dialog reminding you to manually save. 

Autosaviour Reminder Dialog

4. Wait for ___ seconds

Because autosaving while in the middle of actively editing your document results in a small delay which might interrupt your “flow,” this setting will make Autosaviour wait for the specified number of seconds after any change to the document before running a pending autosave. 

5. Backup Previous Version(s)

When enabled, Autosaviour will keep one or more previous versions of a document in addition to the latest version, utilizing the additional settings below the checkbox. 

6. Location

Backups of a document may be stored either in the same folder as the original document, or in a custom location. To set a custom location, either enter the path manually in the text box (for example, “/Users/UserName/Documents/Backups” for Mac, or “D:\Documents\Backups” for Windows) or click the Browse... button, which will bring up a standard OS dialog allowing you to choose a specific folder; the path to that folder will subsequently be entered in the text box. 

Autosaviour supports relative paths for the custom location, using standard “.” and “..” notation. For example, to store backups in a folder called “ASBackups” located in the same folder as the document, enter “./ASBackups” as the path. Note that the folder will not be automatically created. 

7. Keep count

Specifies the number of backups you want kept, from 1 to 999. If making a new backup would cause this count to be exceeded, then the oldest backup file will be deleted. 

8. Append Suffix

Specifies the suffix to add to the document’s name to produce the name of each backup file. An optional string may be entered, followed by either a sequential number or a time stamp in one of six formats. Text underneath will display an example, using a file named “File.ai” and the current date. 

For example, with the location set to Same Folder as Original and the suffix set to the default Sequential Numbering, a file called “MyFile.ai” saved three times after backups have been enabled would result in the following files in its folder: 

Autosaviour Example File List

In the case of Sequential Numbering, the most recent backup always has the “-001” suffix, while the next-most-recent has suffix “-002”, and so on. Thus, if another change were made to the document and the document saved, the file’s folder would now look like this:

Autosaviour Example File List

Note that each backup file has been renumbered to maintain the aforementioned rule, i.e. “MyFile-003.ai” has become “MyFile-004.ai”, “MyFile-002.ai” has become “MyFile-003.ai”, and so on. For this reason, you may want to use a Time Stamp suffix, which produces an absolute name which will not change. 

9. Edit Settings for New Documents... button

Open the New Document Settings dialog (see Autosaviour: New Document Settings). 

10. Help Button

Opens the help documentation in the Astute Manager. If this does not automatically appear, please ensure your Astute Manager is running first.