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#1 2007-12-04 13:48:22

SimpleScratch
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-05-25
Posts: 100+

Where to save projects

Recently, a few Scratchers have been caught out by losing their projects if they un-installed Scratch.

I'd like to offer my years of experience on computers by strongly suggesting that no Scratcher saves any work in the Project folders of Scratch.

ALWAYS save your work in a folder that you have control over.

In Windows, I'd suggest creating a folder in My Documents called ScratchProjects and saving your work there.

Its takes a few more clicks to load and save but completely stops any accidental deleting of your hard work.

This advice applies to any programs on any computer - never save your work in the place the program lives in - upgrades are always likely to delete your work.

regards

Simon

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#2 2007-12-05 08:24:04

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Where to save projects

I was a little surprised that the Projects and Media folders were the default save location in Scratch.  Most of the programs I use (including programs for kids) have a separate directory for "My Projects" that lives in one of the user's directories. Such an organization makes it possible to keep the demo programs and costumes from getting overwritten, since the users can be denied write permission in the shared directories.

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#3 2007-12-05 19:53:35

funkymonkey
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-06-03
Posts: 1000+

Re: Where to save projects

SimpleScratch wrote:

Recently, a few Scratchers have been caught out by losing their projects if they un-installed Scratch.

scratch has been deleted on my computer before, but i dont ever lose the projects. i just cant open them untill i re-install it.


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#4 2007-12-05 20:05:27

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Where to save projects

The problem was a bug in the uninstaller, which removed directories that still had projects in them.

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#5 2007-12-06 21:43:41

andresmh
Scratch Team at MIT
Registered: 2007-03-05
Posts: 1000+

Re: Where to save projects

Yes, that bug got fixed in 1.2.1. I agree, we should use My Documents as the default to store projects.


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#6 2007-12-07 21:02:12

funkymonkey
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-06-03
Posts: 1000+

Re: Where to save projects

how do you uninstall scratch?


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#7 2007-12-08 09:28:41

johnadmin
Scratch Team
Registered: 2007-03-13
Posts: 100+

Re: Where to save projects

Hi, funkymonkey.

To uninstall Scratch, first make sure that you've moved any of your own Scratch project out of the Scratch folder and put them somewhere safe, such as your "My Documents" folder or a folder on your desktop.

Then you can either drag the entire Scratch folder to the trash or run the unistaller from the Start menu (assuming you are on Windows). The Scratch folder is in C:Program Files.

As mentioned above, although the uninstaller was not supposed to delete any user files stored in the Scratch folder, there was a bug in the uninstaller that deleted the entire Scratch folder even if you had projects in it. Llamalover lost quite a few projects by running the uninstaller. We fixed the uninstaller in Scratch 1.2.1 but you probably have an older version.

If you just want to upgrade to the latest version of Scratch, you do not need to uninstall your current version. Just download the latest installer and run it. It will update all the files in your Scratch folder but it will not delete any of our projects that might be stored there.

  -- John

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#8 2007-12-08 09:45:50

johnadmin
Scratch Team
Registered: 2007-03-13
Posts: 100+

Re: Where to save projects

Hi, SimpleScratch and Kevin.

I tend to agree with you that for most people its best to save their own Scratch projects  somewhere outside of the Scratch folder.

Historical note: In the early days of using Scratch at the Computer Clubhouse it was common to install Scratch on a shared drive and to encourage Clubhouse members to save their projects in the Scratch projects folder. This allowed them to share and learn from each others projects, and it also kept the projects on a shared drive so that they were not tied to a particular computer. Since there was no Scratch website yet, a shared Scratch folder was the nearest we could get to creating a Scratch community.

Times change. Now we do have a Scratch website, and Scratch is being used in schools and other settings where it is not feasible for users to store their own projects in the Scratch folder. For the next release, we will think about ways we can make it easier for users to store their projects outside of the Scratch folder.

  -- John

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#9 2007-12-12 09:03:27

PPMom
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-12-12
Posts: 1

Re: Where to save projects

so there's no way to change the default save directory?

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#10 2008-04-11 12:30:20

meastaugh1
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-04-11
Posts: 2

Re: Where to save projects

Are there any plans to allow a default open/save location to be set? As above, it would be very useful. The current behaviour means that by default users are pointed at a location they do not have permission to save to (in Windows XP).

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#11 2008-05-01 18:20:11

scaresothers
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-05-01
Posts: 1

Re: Where to save projects

As someone who uses Scratch in a public school system, I agree.  While it is great advice to always save to a directory you own, explaining this to a classroom of 5 to 9 year olds every time they try to save takes a lot of time. 
At the school where I volunteer, the students have very limited accounts and can only save in specific directories.  To make matters worse, in order to install Scratch (we don't have a true admin account we can use, and discovered that a:  the students can't install Scratch themselves, b:  we can't install as a teacher where the students can "see" the program) we had to install it on a network drive.  Currently, even if they correctly save a project in their own directory, when they re-save it later, the browser defaults back to Scratch's Project directory.  This means that they often inadvertantly save in the wrong location, and can clobber each other's files.
As an educational tool, I would really like to see Scratch's installer, and save dialog better suited to an educational network setup.

Sarah

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