System 7: Edition Manager Edition Files

I have a question about how edition files are handled. I experienced the following with both Excel and Resolve:

  1. Open a spreadsheet.
  2. Make some columns of data.
  3. Publish them on my local hard disk.
  4. Close the spreadsheet, saving changes so the edition file remains.
  5. Move the edition file to a different place on the hard disk. When I open, modify, and close the spreadsheet, the edition file is properly updated (just to see that the spreadsheet can follow the edition).
  6. Close the spreadsheet, mount a file server, and copy the edition file to the file server, deleting the edition file on my local hard drive after the copy is complete.
  7. Open the spreadsheet.


At this point, the application creates a new edition file in the location that the local edition file was last placed, ignoring the edition file on the file server.

Is this behavior application-specific, or is System 7.0 doing this? Am I doing something wrong?
When an application opens a document, it registers every publisher contained within that document with the Edition Manager. If the Edition Manager cannot find the edition, it creates an empty edition in the last known location, and informs the application that it needs to write to this new file.

Therefore, this is standard behavior enforced by the Edition Manager, and applications using the Edition Manager will most likely conform to this behavior.

For more information, consult "Inside Macintosh", volume VI, pp 4-19.
Published Date: Feb 18, 2012