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Saving and Managing Project Files in Autograph

As we continue with this graphic project, let's go over the steps for saving and managing project files within Autograph.

Saving Your Project

Opening the Save Dialog

To save your project, click on File > Save Project As. Following this, you'll see a shortcut for this action (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + S) on the right side of the menu for quick access.

By default, the save dialog opens in your User folder. You can use bookmarks on the left to quickly navigate to other folders, like the Autograph_Intro_Assets folder.

Note that only files with the .agp extension (Autograph Project) are displayed here as a filter is applied (visible in the lower-right corner).

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Creating a New Folder

  • Instead of saving this project in the Autograph_Intro_Assets folder containing the graphic elements, go up one level in the folder hierarchy.

  • Click on New Folder in the upper-right corner to create a new directory called "New Folder". Right-click on it to rename it "Learning_Autograph", and press Enter to save the new name.

  • Double-click on the folder to open it. In the file name field at the bottom, name the file "Learning_Autograph__001" to keep things organized, but don't press Enter yet. The next section will go over how to implement incremental saves.

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Using Incremental Saves

  • After adding "__001" to the filename, you'll notice "+" and "-" buttons appear below. These allow you to increase or decrease the version number, so you can save multiple versions of your project along the way.

  • Click on the Save button in the lower-right corner to finalize the save.

In future sessions, go back to File > Save Project As, select the file, and click on the "+" button to save a new, incremented version. This can also be done instantly by going to File > Increment and Save Project or by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Alt + S.

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Understanding Project File Size

When an Autograph project uses graphic elements referenced in the Project Panel, it only stores their paths, not the elements themselves. The PNG file representing the basketball is not stored in the .agp file. It's only the path to this image that is stored in the Autograph project. This explains why the size of an .agp file is relatively small. This file also contains a snapshot of your active Viewer, used as a preview in the File Explorer. This thumbnail is more visible in Grid Mode.

  • Paths to graphic elements can be defined in Absolute or Relative mode, as explained in this section of the Image Reader section.

  • To transfer a project to another computer, you'll need to move both the .agp file and its linked assets. This task is covered in the Collect Files in Project section.

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Quick Project Navigation

Accessing Project Location Directly

  • In the upper-right corner, just to the left of the project name, there is an icon that can directy open a system file browser indicating the directory containing your project.

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  • When the project is open, an .agp.lock file is located just next to your project file.

  • If you close the project through File > Close Project, the Lock file indicating the project is in use will disappear, indicating that it is no longer actively being edited.

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Reloading Recent Projects

To reopen recent projects:

  • Go to File > Recent Projects to see a list of recently accessed projects. The the most recent one will be at the top.

  • Alternatively, access the Home screen from the button at the top-left corner. This screen contains a Recent Project section including thumbnails of recently accessed projects.

Notes

Remember that Autograph automatically captures a snapshot of your active Viewer to include with each save to help you quickly identify projects from their thumbnails.


Summary

In this section, we covered how to:

  • Save projects and organize them with folders

  • Set up incremental saving

  • Quickly access recent projects and thumbnails for easier project management