P: How did I get a flattened PSD after saving PDF?

I am a powerhouse Photoshop user for over 15 years.  I purchased my Creative Suite CS5 for $2,600.  I would never ever assume SAVE AS PDF would replace my PSD file.  I would assume my PSD layered file is safe.  Someone should kill the developer that change this from the previous version of Photoshop.  CHANGE IT BACK.  IF IT ISN'T BROKEN, WHY THE F!$&%$ FIX IT! 

This is the Norman Door of Save.

I'm thinking when you hit 'save as' pdf you didn't select the 'as a copy' box. See attachment...

Hey Christine,
Thanks for your reply- it's nice to hear I'm not the only one! It gave me me quite the emotional rollcoster when I open my psd!
I will never forget to check that box again, cheers

After losing too many art files I've spent the time to learn that when you are saving your work as a pdf, you need to check the box as a copy on the same screen as where you choose to save as a pdf. It will be fine.

This is stupid & needs to be changed. When I'm working on multiple projects, a co-worker asks a question or my phone rings it's too easy to make a mistake.

Hi,
I've been using PS for 8 years now and this has to be the most frustrating thing that happens with the program - the psd Ive been working on is flattened. I was saving out my document as a .pdf, and the mistake I think I made was unchecking "Preserve Photopshop editing capabilities". I thought this option would allow the pdf to be reopened and editable in PS; thinking that this would increase the size of the pdf I unchecked the option. Now I have a pdf and a flattened psd. Awesome.
Why is saving pdf different from saving out a jpeg or png? Why would I want to flatten my psd?
Great user experience.
Dylan

In early automobiles, the gas peddle wasn't always on the right side. (I don't know if that true, but suppose it was.) Well, of course, people would press the accelerator when they wanted to stop and some three dimensional objected would get flattened.

People complained and one self righteous person said, "just look at the peddles before you hit the breaks. It's that simple." Nevertheless, things kept getting flatten until one day a major car manufacturer, I think it was Ford, decided to do what we call today: "fix the user interface." They studied the problem and decided to always have the gas peddle on the right side.

Adobe telling us to make sure one of the check boxes is checked is like Henry Ford telling Model T owners to look at the peddles before slamming on the breaks. Henry fixed the problem and Adobe can too.

Hi there,

I have experienced something that is very weird in Photoshop CC yesterday, I understand this is how it always works but I consider it a huge problem.

I was working on a PSD with multiple layers and I wanted to save it both as a PSD and also as a PDF file to send it to the client. I first saved my document as a PDF unchecking the box to keep the layers, assuming that this setting is only for the PDF output filter. I unchecked it because that will shrink the document to a reasonable size of 10 Mb instead of 100 Mb. After that I saved it also as a PSD, at that time, all the layers were still visible in the document I was working in.

When I later re-openened the PSD file, to my horror all the layers were gone there as well!

At Adobe they said it is just the way the software works , but i think this is really dangerous for the user, I lost a lot of changes I made in the different layers because of this.

If a user would want to merge all layers into one, he/she could do so with 1 mouseclick, but I definately didnt expect this when I saved the document as a PDF.

After all, when I save the document as a JPG and after that as a PSD, I dont lose all my layers do I?

This just doesnt make any sense! If anyone can explain to me why this is better than just saving the PDF without layers and keeping the project intact, I'd like to hear that...

Marcel

100% agree with all frustrated users. Yes, it is a user error but c'mon adobe, give us a break. It's simply too late once we realize your save as a pdf with/without layers has it's own set of rules as so eloquently said by SidainMSJones above.

This is ridiculous. When I save as PNG, JPG, etc, I get a separate file than my PSD and the PSD remains open.

But when I save a PDF it closes my PSD? Naturally many people would assume that it actually *changed* the PSD, given the save behavior of most other file types.

I've lost a lot of work to this in the past and came here hoping to find it was just user error. Really it is just bad UI design on the part of Adobe.

The question is "answered" and not solved.