Like most Windows programs, SONAR has a File > Save command and a
File > Save As command to save your work. Normally, you save your projects in the standard project file format, with a file extension of .cwp. This file contains all your MIDI data and all your project settings. Any digital audio that is part of your project is stored in a separate file, as described in
System configuration.
If you have made changes to a project and then attempt to close the project, either by closing the Track view or by choosing
File > Close, SONAR asks if you want to save the changes you have made. This prevents you from accidentally losing your work. You can tell whether changes have been made to a project by looking for an asterisk (*) after the project name in the SONAR title bar.
SONAR has an Auto Save feature that periodically saves your work into a special backup file. You can request automatic backups at fixed time intervals or every time a certain number of changes have been made to the file. When the limit is reached, the file is saved automatically. If your original project is called
MyProject.cwp, the Auto Save version is called
Auto Save Version of MyProject.cwp.
If there is a power failure or if you make a significant mistake, you can recover the last-saved version of your project by opening this file. You should then save your project under a different name by using the
File > Save As command.
SONAR can be enabled to keep previously saved versions of your project in a temporary file. You can revert to any of these saved versions or use the default of the most recently saved version.
When file versioning is enabled, SONAR retains a list of previously saved project files in your project folder. The most recent version retains the original name of the project. Previously saved versions are saved with a time stamp following the original project name in order of most recently saved.
