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I've been a BiaB user since the DOS days and have always loved it except for one annoying feature or problem depending on how you look at it. When I leave the program and have forgotten to Save after previously having made changes and Saved As in the same format (.sgu), a dialog comes up and asks if I want to save, if I hit yes, (now the problem), BiaB brings up a Save As box where you have to save and then overwrite your old file etc. 99% of the Windows programs in the world will just save it and let you exit. Same if you try to open a file without saving first, the Save As box appears and you have to overwrite your current file.

Is this intentional? Can it be changed to follow the Windows standard? I don't know any other Windows programs that work like this but it has been like this as long as I have been a user.

Aside from this minor annoyance, I use this program continually in giving guitar, bass and ukulele lessons to print out charts and make play along CD's for my students. I would hate to teach without it!

Thanks,

Michael

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Welcome to the forum. You sound like an experienced and thoughtful user. There is one case that surprised me the first times it happened that is a bit different from other programs: BIAB treats songs without melody .SGU and songs with melody .MGU differently. When you have been working without a melody and then add one, it becomes a new file. Could this be what you are experiencing?


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I think I understand what you have said. I get it when I quit BIAB without saving the song first. Your right, these boxes are unnecessary, BIAB should present one screen "do you wish to save?" that's all.

Also, If my system crashes, or Biab crashes, the RGB numbers in the display get set to Zero, leaving a black chord screen. I have to go into display and load the display template again




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Last edited by ZeroZero; 06/02/15 08:43 PM.

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Originally Posted By: Michael F.
I've been a BiaB user since the DOS days and have always loved it except for one annoying feature or problem depending on how you look at it. When I leave the program and have forgotten to Save after previously having made changes and Saved As in the same format (.sgu), a dialog comes up and asks if I want to save, if I hit yes, (now the problem), BiaB brings up a Save As box where you have to save and then overwrite your old file etc. 99% of the Windows programs in the world will just save it and let you exit. Same if you try to open a file without saving first, the Save As box appears and you have to overwrite your current file.

Is this intentional? Can it be changed to follow the Windows standard? I don't know any other Windows programs that work like this but it has been like this as long as I have been a user.

Aside from this minor annoyance, I use this program continually in giving guitar, bass and ukulele lessons to print out charts and make play along CD's for my students. I would hate to teach without it!

Thanks,

Michael

Yep, the Save/SaveAs functionality is not right! I have been using BIAB only about 2-3 years and every version has had this problem. It has been discussed here but dunno if they will ever fix it.

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And as far as I can tell it has nothing to do with .SGU vs .MGU. Here is a simple test I just did,

1) open BIAB
2) keep the styles that are loaded (prolly from your last use)
3) leave the C in the first bar
4) Save As YourFilename
5) add one more chord anywhere on the screen
6) quit BIAB
7) as you would expect, it prompts to see if you wish to save
8) say Yes

at this point, any standard Windows program will save the file using the name you used previously in your SaveAs in step #4 above and exit the program.

BUT BIAB instead pops up the SaveAs dialog and if you attempt the save with the same name it then warns you about overwriting, which is, of course, what Save should do and exactly what you wanted it to do!

Last edited by JohnJohnJohn; 06/02/15 09:56 PM.
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I often want to do a new arrangement of a song, but keep the original arrangement.

In that case, I use the "save as" function, and change the name of the song.


If there was only one save function, I would not be able to do this.

So for me, having the two save functions (save and save as) makes perfect sense.


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This is a known problem, has been noted here several times,but it was never solved


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Not a problem or bug as Mike and John have stated. Can't understand why you think otherwise.


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Originally Posted By: raymb1
Not a problem or bug as Mike and John have stated. Can't understand why you think otherwise.


Please, read JohnJohnJohn's post above.

Other examples of this odd behavior have been reported in this forum over the last years, and, if I remember correctly (95% sure), Peter himself recognized the problem and said that he could fix it easily a couple of years ago.


Last edited by Cerio; 06/07/15 09:07 AM.

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Originally Posted By: Mike Laatz
I often want to do a new arrangement of a song, but keep the original arrangement.

In that case, I use the "save as" function, and change the name of the song.


If there was only one save function, I would not be able to do this.

So for me, having the two save functions (save and save as) makes perfect sense.

Mike, we are not suggesting they remove either the Save or the Save As features...those are standard Windows features and should be kept! What we are suggesting is they make them work the way they are supposed to per the Windows guidelines!

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Originally Posted By: raymb1
Not a problem or bug as Mike and John have stated. Can't understand why you think otherwise.

Ray, you may have learned to work with these as they are programmed in BIAB but they are definitely not working correctly according to the Windows interface standards. And this means it makes the program a littler less user-friendly. If you want to understand this try the following simple test with the simplest Windows application there is,

1) open Notepad
2) type a word
3) use Save As to save your file
4) type another word (but don't save)
5) quit Notepad

It asks if you wish to save and if you click the Save button it saves the file using the same name you assigned it and then exits. It does NOT pop up a Save As box! This is the correct behavior for a Windows program in this scenario and that is what needs to be fixed on BIAB.

And if for some reason you like it working differently than the Windows interface standards, well, good for you! But most folks would prefer it work consistently with other Windows programs so according to standards, yes indeed, it is a bug!

Last edited by JohnJohnJohn; 06/07/15 09:13 AM.
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It's not really a 'bug' (I think it's intentional), but I agree; having it act like standard Windows programs would be nice.
I don't notice this in RB, but if it is this way in BiaB it should be changed IMO.


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Originally Posted By: rharv
It's not really a 'bug' (I think it's intentional), but I agree; having it act like standard Windows programs would be nice.
I don't notice this in RB, but if it is this way in BiaB it should be changed IMO.

I'd disagree and say if you break a standard, even intentionally, it is a bug. smile

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I'll support your efforts as much as I can.
I do (and did) agree it should conform to the standards .. I guess our interpretation of a bug (vs complaint) may differ

I'm OK with that. smile


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