Why no save prompt?

[Robert Floyd]

After losing data yesterday when hitting the red button before saving, I
dashed off a suggestion to Microsoft about this. Is anyone else dismayed
that Excel does not exhibit this most basic application behavior: before
closing a window, it should ask if the file should be saved?

Am I being unreasonable in expecting either a prompt on hitting the red
button or in having some indication in the window bar there are unsaved
changes in the spreadsheet (as in OmniOutliner)?

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Robert -

You're not being unreasonable in your expectations as that *is* the normal
course of action for Excel to take. If you actually have made changes and
aren't being prompted to save on closing the file or exiting the program
there must be something else at play. In order to help figure out what that
might be it would be useful to know:

What version of Excel? What update?
What verson of OS X?
What type of Mac?
Any other details you can provide which may be [even remotely] related?

 

[Bernard Rey]

Strange behavior indeed. Excel does pop up a warning when there is some
unsaved data in the workbook and as in many other apps (including TextEdit),
a black dot can be seen in the middle of the red button as long as there are
unsaved changes in the doc.

Are you sure you haven't saved your workbook to some unusual location?

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Strange behavior indeed. Excel does pop up a warning when there is some
unsaved data in the workbook and as in many other apps (including TextEdit),
a black dot can be seen in the middle of the red button as long as there are
unsaved changes in the doc.

Are you sure you haven't saved your workbook to some unusual location?

Holy cow Bernard. I never noticed that!

Anyway, yes that is strange behavior. I have found that Excel always asks to
save if there are changes. The only case may be a before save macro that
closes the file without saving, or marks the workbook as "clean"

 

[JE McGimpsey]

After losing data yesterday when hitting the red button before saving, I
dashed off a suggestion to Microsoft about this. Is anyone else dismayed
that Excel does not exhibit this most basic application behavior: before
closing a window, it should ask if the file should be saved?

I'm not dismayed because on my machine (and every other one I've ever
used with XL1 through XL04) XL exhibits exactly the behavior you're
expecting, as long as something has changed since the last save (or
since the file was opened).

What version of XL are you using?

Are you able to reliably reproduce this close-without-save?

Does this happen with all workbooks, or only one? Do your workbooks
contain event macros (or other macros) that would interfere with the
saving process? Did XL close normally, or did it crash?

Am I being unreasonable in expecting either a prompt on hitting the red
button or in having some indication in the window bar there are unsaved
changes in the spreadsheet (as in OmniOutliner)?

I get the prompt, and if a change is made, the icon in the top of the
workbook window dims (then is restored when next saved).

 

[Robert Floyd]

Strange behavior indeed. Excel does pop up a warning when there is some
unsaved data in the workbook and as in many other apps (including TextEdit),
a black dot can be seen in the middle of the red button as long as there are
unsaved changes in the doc.

Are you sure you haven't saved your workbook to some unusual location?

Stranger and stranger...after reading the helpful hints here, I went back to
a workbook and made a change. Sure enough, the black dot appeared in the red
light and I got the save prompt! I have no idea what's happening here,
unless reading your responses caused me to emit psychic waves that fixed the
problem (I saw "La Moustache" last night, so I'm in that freaky frame of
mind).

Thanks for your input, everyone, and, in the words of Emily Letella, "Never
mind."