Thanks Terry.  As best I can recall was trying to save a ".py" while 
IDLE and the "'.py" file were both open, but definitely not a 
'Library' file.  I did try to save the IDLE window display once, and 
it may have been this time.  My programs have been much smaller than 
400000 lines (53 KB max), but I have saved a 500 billion byte file on 
the same 2TB hard drive without a problem.

Attached is a WordPad doc describing two additional problems that 
happened a little while ago.  Python is new to me.  Would I have 
fewer problems if I used an earlier version?  Thanks again for the 
help   ....  Joe Gaspard

At 03:57 PM 8/1/2014, you wrote:

>Terry J. Reedy added the comment:
>
>What file were you trying to save to? Be very exact. Reading/Saving 
>to 'Library' files is known to have problems and there is another 
>issue for this.
>
>Were you trying to save the Shell window, displaying output from 
>your program.
>
>What is the minimum # of lines required to have a problem.  400000 
>lines is probably "won't fix" because the problem is likely with tk 
>and Windows, not Idle.  Your program should print directly to a file.
>
>----------
>nosy: +terry.reedy
>title: Hang during File "Save As" -> Idle: Hang during File "Save As"
>
>_______________________________________
>Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org>
><http://bugs.python.org/issue22105>
>_______________________________________