There is a difference semantics between "save as" and "export", although it is by no means always honored. I think the technical difference is that "save as" is supposed to make the new file the current document, so subsequent "save" operations will save directly to that file. And that means the format really has to be a "native" format, or at least one capable of being wrotten and read with all displayed information preserved. I don't know how consistent applications are with this distinction, or if all OS's have this expectation, but that's how I learned it way back when I was learning software design.

So to my mind, the only formats appropriate for "save as" are MSCZ and MSCX. All other formats are really "export" - they don't change the current document, and for the most part, they shouldn't, because they don't preserve anywhere near all of the displayed info. I suppose MusicXML could be a true "save as" format, but that's about it.

In particular, PDF and audio formats definitely do not belong in "save as", since you can't read those back in at all. And I think we get more than our share of questions about how to convert to these formats, because people don't k ow to look for them in "save as".

chen lung

• Jun 10, 2012 - 16:24

As close as it is, I wouldn't have MusicXML in Save As, because it doesn't preserve everything about the score and application.