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Yes, I thought the same thing! Really shows the value of running tests with people with other backgrounds.

Just for fun I tried saving a document in Microsoft Office 2007 here with a filename containing slashes. I got a slightly better response: "Ogiltigt filnamn" (Illegal filename). Not as confusing, but still no help at all on what was wrong with it or how to correct it.

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I just tried the same on the Mac (in TextEdit). If you start with a slash, you get a 'go to directory' dialog. If you enter a slash later in the filename, it saves with a slash in the filename. The 'magic' is that it actually uses colons, which are shown as slashes in the UI. If you try to enter a colon in the filename, it replaces it with a dash. Renaming a file in finder to use a colon, gives a message similar to your 'Illegal filename'.

Wow - I didn't know about that / on the Mac. You, sir, have just saved me three key presses on probably 75% of both my save And open windows...

My father once asked for my help because his computer (Windows, either 2000 or XP) told him he was doing something "illegal" and he was worried he was breaking the law.

I laughed for 12 minutes at that because my mother did the same thing.

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