Versions and drafts
Which copy is current, how to get back what you changed yesterday, and how to try a chapter again without losing it.
Keeping track of every version
A book goes through many shapes before it is finished. Each one tends to leave a file behind. The questions here come from that trail: which copy is current, how to reach back past the undo button to something you changed yesterday, and how to try a chapter again without throwing the first attempt away.
The answers cover the version history already built into Word, Google Docs, and Scrivener, and the file habits that keep a folder readable. Then they show how named drafts, snapshots, and a day-by-day edit history handle the same jobs inside one manuscript.
The answers
- Which of my manuscript files is the latest draft? — Comparing copies, a naming rule that sorts, and one file with its own history.
- How do I undo a mistake I made yesterday? — Version history, backups, and a day-by-day record of every edit.
- How do I rewrite a chapter without losing the old version? — Keeping the original safe, then merging the new version a difference at a time or all at once.
Try it on your own manuscript
Nothing is metered: as many projects as you like at any length, the outline and minimap to move through them, drafts and markup mode for revising, snapshots to return to, sheets and timelines beside the page, and export to DOCX, PDF, EPUB, HTML, Markdown, plain text and Fountain. Bring in what you have already written and read it back as a book.
The Cloud plan is $18 a month, or $172.80 a year, and adds backup, sync across your devices, sharing a manuscript for review, and publishing your work as a web page — the readers and collaborators you invite do not need a paid account of their own. Tabularia is in Public Beta and shipping steadily; the release notes record what has landed.