Stationary on Mac doesn't work.

[Old Bruce]

I made a simple blank document saved it and in the Finder changed it to stationary. If I open it from Affinity Publisher I get the original, only if I open it from the Finder do I get a copy of it. This is wrong behaviour.

[Old Bruce]

More general weirdness, check the creation and modification times.

How could the file be modified before creation?

[MEB]

12 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

I made a simple blank document saved it and in the Finder changed it to stationary. If I open it from Affinity Publisher I get the original, only if I open it from the Finder do I get a copy of it. This is wrong behaviour.

Hi Old Bruce
Not sure what's going on but I'm getting the same behaviour in other apps (tried TextEdit and Pixelmator). Has this behaviour changed or it's a bug in Mojave? Can you check with other apps on your system please? I will check this on a High Sierra machine too.

[vonBusing]

I'm still on macOS Sierra and this is how APub and other apps behave.

This is also how MS office files have been working as long as I have been using them (but based on different file extensions). Double-click (from Finder) to create a new document based on the template; open from within program to edit the template.

[Old Bruce]

When I open a stationary file from BBEdit or Digital Performer I get the file with the title "Untitled" when I open from the finder I get the file with "copy" appended to the stationary file's name. Numbers is just weird, if I make a change to the original and save it (after I open from Numbers and have the original open [which is not the way a stationary file is supposed to work]) the file is no longer a stationary file [again not the way a stationary file is supposed to work]). 

I can understand the (wrong) thinking behind the opening from the Finder behaviour but this opening the original as the original from within the program makes me think Apple really Ucked Fup a while back and I didn't notice.

If I want to edit the Original Stationary file I will uncheck the box in the finder and work away and save the changes and (again in the Finder) make it a stationary file).

Have to go because I feel my blood pressure going up thinking about how Apple has taken functionality away for no reason I can see.

[mac_heibu]

As long as I can remember, this is expected behaviour.

[Old Bruce]

<Full Rant>

Stationary is supposed to give me a new untitled document and I can save it where ever I want.

If I open by double clicking in the finder I get a new untitled document I can save where ever I want.

If I open from the Program I get a new untitled document I can save where ever I want.

I don't get the original opened, I don't get the original copied to the same folder which is exactly NOT where I want the new file to be saved.

When I double click a stationary  file the opening application should start and then open a copy of the file. The Finder should not make a copy in the same folder/directory and then start that file's opening application. The idea behind the stationary option was that the opening application would present you with an untitled unsaved copy of the stationary file which you could save where-ever you wanted too. The current implementation is as bad as that Hockey Puck mouse Steve Jobs signed off on and bragged about. Hours of time spent searching for things, mouse button or files, because of bad design.

</Full Rant>

Not Affinity's fault, mine for not noticing earlier how Apple has changed this once useful option for something much worse. [frowning-face emoticon][old-man-shaking-his-fist-at-the-sky emoticon]

[vonBusing]

@Old Bruce: agreed that the solution of duplicating and then opening the file is a sloppy implementation. One can suspect that there are just two rows of AppleScript behind that Stationary checkbox. In that way, MS office makes it more elegant with a new unnamed document to be saved wherever is better.