Drafts, Snapshots, and autosave

1. Autosave: "did my typing get saved?"

Every change saves to your device as you type. There is no Save button. The Cloud plan also syncs those changes online; the status indicator shows when local edits are waiting to sync. Autosave keeps your latest work, not earlier versions.

2. Snapshots: "can I get back to this morning?"

Take a Snapshot before a big revision or when sending work to a reader. Use the shortcut or the Project’s History, where you can also restore it. Snapshots stay local with the Local plan and are backed up with the Cloud plan. See Snapshots and History.

3. Drafts: "can I try another version of this?"

A Draft holds an alternative version of a passage or the whole Manuscript, copied when you create it. Later edits to the original do not change that copy.

The Base Draft sits beneath the alternatives. You can show several Drafts at once; overlapping branches display their passages stacked. Open Drafts & Sharing to switch versions or merge one. See Working with Drafts.

4. Rule of thumb

• Rewriting something and unsure the new version is better? Make a draft.
• About to do something sweeping, like a structural cut, a merge, or a big find-and-replace? Take a Snapshot first.
• Just writing? Autosave has you, and always did.

Snapshots record which Drafts were showing and their saved wording. Restoring one brings back that view. Deleted Drafts cannot be recreated; if the deleted Draft was its Base, the composition can be reported but not restored. See Markup Mode.

5. Continue reading

• Previous: Story shapes and outlines
• Next: Importing an existing manuscript
• All guide articles