Save As vs Export — What is The Difference?

Save as is for editable formats. Export is for final output like PDF. The difference is mostly artificial.

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By. Jacob

Jacob Kristensen (Turbulentarius) is a Web Developer based in Denmark. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Web Development at Zealand, focusing on learning React and refining his existing skills.

Edited: 2025-05-07 11:41

The title says it all. Put briefly, there probably shouldn’t be an "Export" function at all—it makes no real sense. I expect "Save As" to handle format conversion if needed, and I don’t care whether the program can still edit the new file afterward.

People don’t care about the difference. Why would they?

Some formats are meant primarily for viewing, others for editing. But this distinction is meaningless and irrelevant when it comes to saving files, and many users won’t understand it anyway.

It clutters the interface and makes it harder to find what you’re looking for.

I’ve often been confused by programs that don’t let me "Save As" directly to .pdf or an image format—only to find the option buried under a separate "Export" feature. LibreOffice, for example, hides the .pdf format in its export menu.

Browsers are a bit strange. To save a web page as a PDF on Windows, you have to use the print to PDF option—there’s no save as. That might actually be for the better, since it allows designers to create an all-in-one HTML document that works for mobile, desktop, and when printing or saving to PDF.