Question

Suggested update/fix - Dont mark files as saved if saving to PDF with perverse editing turned off

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
November 27, 2025
1 reply
444 views

One 'feature' that really bugs me about Illustrator is that you can make many changes to a document, save it as a PDF, turn off Preserve Editing Capabilities, and Illustrator will mark the document as 'saved', allowing you to close it without prompting.

The risk is that you can easily lose work by exporting a low-res proof, and then accidentally closing without any warning or prompts that you will lose the editable file.

It would seem like a simple fix, don't mark the document as saved if saving without full editing checked.

BTW is a NOT a fan of how Illustrator does dual formats ai/pdf

Monika Gause

Community Expert

I would not expect this to happen, because different peoples' needs are different.

So maybe you want to make it a habit to save your PDFs with "Save a copy"

Glenn WiltonAuthor

My point is that any process that could result in the loss of data (not saving an editable file and closing) should be guarded by a prompt unless the user explicitly tells the program not to prompt them again.

Yes, save as copy works as well, but its a blind spot for users just saving and choosing pdf.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

And my point is that a lot of people use this command and know exactly what they are doing. Giving them a popup at this point would disrupt their workflow.

Saving a PDF with Editing Capabilities turned off triggers an alert. Why should there be another one?

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded