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Create, Open, and Save Projects

How to create a Solar Sailer project, open an existing one, switch between projects, and keep your work saved.

Create a new project​

  1. Open the File menu and click New Project…. On the welcome screen, click the New Project… button instead.
  2. In the save dialog, pick a folder and type a name for your project.
  3. Click Save.

Solar Sailer writes the project file to disk right away, as a SolarSailer Project (.sailer) file. There is no unsaved "untitled" state. If you cancel the save dialog, nothing changes and the project you had open stays loaded.

:::info Keep the data folder with the project

As you work, Solar Sailer keeps some project data, like transcripts, in a folder named after your project that ends in .sailer.data, next to the .sailer file. When you move or copy a project, move that folder along with it.

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A new project starts empty, with no media and no clips. Your next step is to bring in footage. See Import Media.

Open a project​

  1. Open the File menu and click Open Project…, or press Ctrl+O.
  2. Pick a .sailer file and confirm.

To reopen something you worked on recently, use File → Open Recent. It lists your recent projects by file name. When the list is empty it shows No Recent Projects.

The welcome screen also has a Recent Projects section. It shows your five most recent projects as cards, with the project name, its location, and when you last opened it. Click Show all to see the rest of the list, which holds up to ten projects. If a project file has been moved or deleted, its card reads Missing — file not found.

Switch projects​

To switch projects, just open another one. The current project closes and the new one loads.

:::warning Save before you switch

Solar Sailer does not ask you to save when you switch projects. Any unsaved changes in the current project are lost the moment the new one opens. Press Ctrl+S before you switch projects or quit the app.

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info

Switching projects also restarts the AI assistant. Its conversation history does not carry over to the new project.

Save your work​

Press Ctrl+S, or open the File menu and click Save. To save the project under a different name or location, use File → Save As… (Ctrl+Shift+S).

The save indicator lives at the bottom-right of the status bar. While a save is running it reads Saving…. After that it reads Last saved: followed by the time. Nothing shows there until the first save of your session. The title bar never shows an unsaved-changes marker, so the status bar is the place to check.

:::tip Autosave

Autosave is on by default. You can adjust it in Edit → Preferences… under Autosave. After long operations like Sync or Transcribe, Solar Sailer always autosaves. That one can't be turned off, because losing that work would be expensive to redo.

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