All the technical news debris I collected this week was covered at TMO, so I'm going to move on to something else.

Some odd behavior has cropped up in Snow Leopard regarding Stationery pads. And I can't pin it on a recent OS update.

Ever since Apple introduced Stationery Pads, they worked in a very desirable way. You'd create a file of some kind, a template, and get it just as you wished. Even the window location on the screen. Then, using Get Info, you'd mark it as a Stationery pad.

Get Info: Stationery Pad option

The nice thing about this was that when you'd double click the file, the app would load a copy, without making a formal copy on disk, and then you'd go about editing the file based on the template. When it was time to save, just hit CMD-S, (not Save As...) and a save dialog box would come up offering you a chance to name it. No other copy of the Stationery pad file would exist.

Today, however, for some odd reason, the behavior of Stationery pads changed. And I am not alone. A few days ago, another user noticed the same new behavior out of the blue. This is the first time I've seen new behavior more or less spring up, not attributed to an OS update.

Today, in Snow Leopard, when I double clicked a Stationery pad file, a copy was made, formally on the disk. Then, after editing the template, in this case my article template, I have to use Save As... If I don't, and just hit Save, the copy of the Stationery pad file on the disk is modified. That's not what I want, and not what most people want to see.

Worse, the directory becomes littered with all these copies of the Stationery pad file.

Here's another explanation from a user, dated Nov 19, that explains the problem as well.

I'm not sure what to make of this, especially since the behavior seemingly changed overnight. (I know. It seems bizzarre, but I am comforted by noticing two other users who've seen the change.) If anyone has anything to report on this, please let us all know in the comments below or e-mail me directly.

I just have on thing to say. Yikes!

On Monday, I'll publish a deferred article on backing up (or excluding) virtual machines, Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion, in Time Machine backups.