# 6.2. Saving a Document

Once you have entered text and data into a document, you will usually want to save this to a file on your hard drive.

## 6.2.1. The "Save" Command

The "Save" command can be invoked 3 ways:

- By selecting File->Save from the Menu Bar

- You can use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl-S

- or by clicking on the toolbar.

Any of these methods results in the same action by KWord.

By selecting the "Save" command, you are instructing KWord to save the file under the current filename. You will not be given the option to change the filename or its location. If you want to change the name of the file, or where it is saved, you must select File->Save As... from the Menu bar.

If you have not saved this file before, it does not have a filename. KWord automatically executes the "Save As..." command so you can provide a file name.

KWord does not report a sucessful save. Therefore, if the file was saved without incident, KWord will return you to editing your document. If there is a probelm with the save, an error box will appear.

## 6.2.2. The "Save As.." Command

The "Save As..." command can be invoked 2 ways:

- By selecting File->Save As... from the Menu bar

- or by trying to "Save" a file which does not yet have a filename.

The difference between the "Save" and the "Save As..." command, is the "Save As..." command prompts you for a filename, and lets you select a different file format or location.

When you select the "Save As..." function, a dialog appears.

Lets look at this dialog more closely:

This dialog shows my current directory is "/home/mike". You can see this by the textbox at the top of the dialog

The large box below that shows I currently have 3 folders in this directory. One of the folders is "/home/mike/Desktop", another is "/home/mike/Mail".

The third folder is labled "..". This is a special folder that exists in all directories on your computer. It tells the computer that if I select this folder, to move up one level in the directory heirarchy. (If a directory heirarchy is a foriegn concept to you, I would recommend reading a chapter in a good Unix book, which describes the directory filesystem).

We can also see I have previously saved a file called "tempkwordfile". (All KWord documents end in .kwd).

The text box labled "File Name" is blank, which indicates this file does not currently have a filename at all. If you were saving a file to a new location (not saving a new file), you would see the current file name listed here.

The text box labled "File Type" shows we intend to save this as a KWord file. Using KWord, you can save the file as other formats. For information on this, see the section on Filters.

There is a "Cancel" button, if you click this button, the save will be aborted, and you will return to editing the document.

There is a "Save" button, which will be used when we have selected the correct location, correct format and correct filename.

There are also 4 buttons:

| Moves you up one level in the directory tree.
| Creates a new folder. If you click on this button, a new folder will be created. The title of the new folder is "New folder", but you are automatically asked to give it a new name.
| This button toggles the file details (size, date create,etc) off.
| This button toggles the file details (size, date create,etc) on.

Using this dialog, you can move through the directory tree to find a location to save your document in.

To enter a folder, you double click on that folder. To exit that folder, you double click the ".." folder, or the click button.

When you are in the correct folder, you can type a name into the "File Name" box. There is no need to put a .kwd at the end of your filename, KWord will do this for you.

Unix filenames are more flexible than many other operating systems. Filenames can:

- be of nearly any length

- be any comination of upper and lower case letters

- include spaces and puncuation

Filenames should not:

- begin with a space or period

- end with a common file extension (.ps,.pdf,etc). This will tell KWord to try to export to that filetype. KWord has only certain specifice filters.

Once you have entered the correct information you can click on "Save" to complete the save.

KWord does not report a sucessful save. Therefore, if the file was saved without incident, KWord will return you to editing your document. If there is a probelm with the save, an error box will appear.

| KWord will only allow you to save your file where you are allowed to by the permisions listed by the operating system. If you try to save outside that area, KWord will generate an error.