Manuscript Snapshots

Manuscript snapshots let you save a copy of your entire manuscript at a point in time. The button in the toolbar at the top of your writing area is called Versions: think of each version as a snapshot of your book at a point in time. Snapshots are for looking back and copying text you need; they don't replace your current manuscript. You can always open a snapshot to see exactly what your book looked like and grab anything you want to reuse.

What's Captured

A snapshot captures everything in your manuscript:

All chapters with their titles, subtitles, numbering, and which folders your chapters are in
All scenes within every chapter, including the full text
How your chapters are organized into folders (the snapshot captures everything even if you don't use folders)

Snapshots always capture your entire manuscript, not individual chapters or scenes. In a series, that means the whole of the Book you are currently writing in: each Book keeps its own separate set of snapshots, and its own 10 slots.

Note: If your series is older than version 1.3.5, snapshots you took back then captured every Book at once rather than one Book, so they are all kept together under your first Book. Open the first Book’s Versions panel to read any of them.

Creating a Snapshot

Click the Versions button (clock icon) on the right side of the toolbar at the top of your writing area. A window opens with your version list. Type an optional description and click Create.

Note: Creating a snapshot leaves your scene drafts (saved alternate versions of individual scenes; see the Scene Drafts article) exactly where they are. The two features keep separate histories, so you never have to choose between them.

Descriptions help you remember why you took the snapshot: for example, "Before rewriting Chapter 3" or "Draft 2 complete." If you leave the description blank, Penpoint names it for you automatically: Version 1, Version 2, and so on.

Note: You can store up to 10 snapshots per book. When you reach the limit, delete an older snapshot before creating a new one.

Viewing a Snapshot

Click the eye icon (an open eye shape) next to any snapshot to open it, or click anywhere on that row. The viewer looks and feels like your regular writing screen (with the sidebar for browsing chapters), but nothing can be changed. A "Read-only Snapshot" label at the top confirms you're viewing a snapshot.

Click Back to Editor or press Escape to return to your current manuscript.

Managing Snapshots

Edit description: Click the pencil icon to update a snapshot's description. Press Enter to save the description.
Delete: Click the trash icon to permanently remove a snapshot. Deletion is immediate with no confirmation step, so be sure before you click. This makes room for a new one if you've reached the 10-snapshot limit.

Snapshots are listed newest first. Version numbers (v1, v2, etc.) are assigned in the order you create them: v1 is your first snapshot, v2 the second, and so on. In a series the numbering starts again at v1 in each Book, so the panel header names the Book you are looking at.