History

Steps and checkpoints

Every change you make is a step. Manuscript keeps them all, so no earlier draft is lost.

A run of typing is one step. A checkpoint is a step Manuscript marks along the way. It makes one:

when you stop typing for thirty seconds,
when you save,
when you close the manuscript,
and when a new manuscript or an import begins.

You can add one yourself. Right-click a point in History and choose Add a checkpoint….

See your history

Choose View ▸ Show History, or press ⌘3. History opens along the foot of the window: a line of checkpoints from the beginning to now.

¶ The frost came overnight, without ceremony. By morning the beds were silvered, and the last of the tomatoes had surrendered on the vine.

¶ Mara walked the rows with her coffee going cold, counting what the cold had spared — less than she feared, if she was honest. The kale, of course, looked delighted.

¶ She stood a while longer, breath and coffee steaming together. The garden could wait; the frost could not.

The frost came overnight, without ceremony. By morning the beds were silvered, and the last of the tomatoes had surrendered on the vine.

Mara walked the rows with her coffee going cold, counting what the cold had spared — less than she feared, if she was honest. The kale, of course, looked delighted.

She stood a while longer, breath and coffee steaming together.

The garden could wait; the frost could not.

Now Fit − + OverviewTimeline

the lyrical one every take in

Fig. 1 — History under the text. A branch leaves the line at a checkpoint.

With History open, ← and → step back and on, and ⌥← and ⌥→ go from checkpoint to checkpoint. The text shows the manuscript as it was. It’s read only there.

⌘2 closes History and takes you back to the text.