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Comment by Vincenttermini | Hacker News Reader

Marking a file as "Stationary Pad" will create and open a copy every time you open the original. Good for templates or any other file you don't want to accidentally save changes to.

- Get Info on file. - Check Stationary Pad box.

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That's a strange name/label for an awesome feature.

I know, right? Been using Macs for 25 years and discovered it a few months ago on accident. Not sure how long it's been there, but definitely a dumb name!

I remember this from the classic Mac OS days (i.e. System 7) circa 1994. It’s probably even older than that.

This is so incredibly useful! I also remember it from those days as a kid. I wish I knew it was still a thing all this time!

I think it originated with the Lisa. It's mentioned in that context on folklore.org (1):

> Lisa users never dealt with Lisa applications directly (these were called tools in Lisa parlance) but instead always manipulated stationery pads which produced documents.

(1) https://www.folklore.org/ProjectView.py?project=Macintosh&in...

It's been there for a very long time. I used to teach DTP with QuarkExpress back in 92 and this feature was gold. It helped to preserve and not destroy the page templates of the magazine. The fine folks at this publisher had a hard time adjusting to the new world and it saved me so much time when they messed around with the layout and page settings

It'd make sense if the label were actually "Stationery", which is practically a paper template.

Fortunately, that is how it's spelled.

It should be Stationery. At least it was back in System 7.

Interesting feature, but it seems to work only when opening the file from Finder.

If you open the file from within the application itself (I tested with Pages) or via an external app (Terminal, LaunchBar, etc) then it opens the original.

I did not know that feature was still around. I just got a work MacBook after not owning a Mac for years. That was a feature of System 7 - in 1992.

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