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Saving and Backing Up Your Work

About Versions

Storyist saves a backup copy of your work automatically every few minutes. If Storyist should quit unexpectedly, it will restore your project from the most recent backup copy the next time you launch the application. These backup copies are called versions.

You can view these automatically-saved versions and compare them to the current project using the Versions Browser as follows:

  1. Open the project whose previous versions you want to view.
  2. Choose File > Revert To > Browse All Versions.
  3. Click the arrows on the right to move forward and backward in the version history.

Versions Browser

The Versions Browser works with Apple's Time Machine backup software. If you enable Time Machine, you'll be able to browse versions that are saved both on your computer and on your Time Machine hard drive. The Versions Browser also works with iCloud, so if you store your file in iCloud, you'll be able to browse versions made on other devices too.

As noted above, versions are created every few minutes while you're writing, and each time you use the File > Save command. To make efficient use of disk space, macOS periodically prunes these versions. It keeps hourly versions for a day, daily versions for a month, and weekly versions for all previous months as space permits.

If you prefer to see a simple list of previous versions, you can use the File > Show Previous Versions command.

Versions Window

Manually Saving a Version of Your Work

You can also save a version of your work manually. You might do this after completing a draft or before writing a scene you are not sure you're going to keep.

To save a version manually:

  1. Choose File > Save a Version. A dialog appears.
  2. Enter a comment to help you identify this version.
  3. Click Save a Version.

Save a Version dialog

Alternately:

  1. Choose File > Show Previous Versions. The versions list appears.
  2. Click the Save a Version button in the toolbar and follow the steps above.

Reverting to a Previous Version

If you're not happy with the changes you've made to your story, it is easy to return to a previous version:

  1. Open the Versions Browser as described above.
  2. Locate the revision you want to restore.
  3. Click Restore.

Alternately:

  1. Choose File > Show Previous Versions.
  2. Select the version you want to restore.
  3. Click the Restore Version button in the toolbar.