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Tech Tuesday: Snapshots in Scrivener 2.x

Tech Stuff12 Comments

Planning to edit a file, but don’t want to lose your current version? Try Snapshots. The Snapshots feature has been upgraded in Scrivener 2.x and is now infinitely more useful. Let’s take a look.

Create a Snapshot of Your Current File

Use these steps when your cursor is in the editor pane of the file you want (the file is highlighted in gray in the Binder instead of blue).

  1. From the Documents menu, choose Snapshots, Take Snapshot. (Or, my preference, use the shortcut cmd+5).
  2. Alternatively, you can click the Snapshots button (which looks like a camera) at the bottom of the Inspector pane, and click the + button to take a Snapshot.
  3. Note that the Snapshots button now has an asterisk in it. This tells you that the document has one or more snapshots associated with it. Another snapshots “tell” is the folded right corner of the document icon in the Binder.

Create a Snapshot of One or More Files by Selecting in the Binder

If you want to take a snapshot of a file you’re not yet editing, or of multiple files, use this method.

  1. Select the file(s) in the Binder. (Use shift+click for continuous selection, or cmd+click for non-contiguous.)
  2. From the Documents menu, choose Snapshots, Take Snapshots of Selected Documents (cmd+5 works here too).

Adding a Title to Your Snapshots

Snapshots are tracked by the date and time they were saved, but you can also give them a title. To save a Snapshot with a title from the very beginning, use one of the two methods above, but choose Take Titled Snapshots of Selected Documents (or shift+cmd+5). To add a title after the fact…

  1. In the Inspector pane, double-click in the Title box for the Snapshot you want to name.
  2. Enter a title.

Great, so you have a snapshot. Now what? Now you can go on your merry way, editing without fear of losing your original words. But let's say you think your earlier version might have a better opening paragraph and you want to go back and look. One of the great new features in 2.x is the ability to easily compare versions of a document.

Compare view in the Snapshots pane

Compare a Snapshot with the Current Version

  1. In the Binder, select the file you want to compare.
  2. In the Inspector, click on the Snapshots button.
  3. Choose the snapshot you’d like to compare to, and click the Compare button.
  4. Added text will be underlined in blue. Deleted text will be crossed out and red.
  5. To adjust the level of granularity, click the down arrow next to the Compare button. I suggest leaving all three checked unless all you've done is added and subtracted whole paragraphs. Play with it, but it can be confusing at paragraph level if you made a lot of small changes.
  6. Use the right and left arrow buttons to move among the flagged changes. Or just scroll in the pane.
  7. If you decide that you like the entire Snapshot better than the current version, you can easily reinstate the snapshot by clicking the Roll Back button. You will be prompted to take a snapshot of the current version before you roll back, just in case you have regrets.
  8. When you're done looking at snapshots, you can click the Original button to view the selected snapshot in the Snapshots pane without highlighted changes. (This is the default view when you first open the Snapshots pane.)

Did you notice something annoying about comparing the two versions? The Snapshots pane is kind of small, isn’t it? No problem. You can also compare versions using Split Screen.

Compare Using Split Screen Mode

  1. Click the Toggle Split button at the top right corner of the Editor pane.
  2. To see the snapshot without red/blue edits, drag the snapshot you want to view from the list in the Snapshots pane to the header of the split window you want to view it in.
  3. If you want the edits to show in the the text editor, hold down the Option key while dragging the desired snapshot to the editor pane. (Thanks to MM for sharing this capability!)

The snapshot is read-only and can’t be edited. However, you can copy and paste from the snapshot in the editor pane to your current file.

Comparing versions in Split Screen mode

Delete Snapshots

Got some old versions you know you don't want? Delete them. Here's how.

  1. In the Snapshots pane, select the version you want to delete.
  2. Click the – (minus) button in the top right corner of the pane.
  3. A warning dialog box will appear. If you're sure you want to delete it, click OK.

So, that's a quick snapshot of Snapshots. 😉 For another method for keeping old versions of your files, see Snapshots and Unused Scenes (written for 1.x). For more help, check out the insanely thorough Scrivener manual under the Help menu, or try Scrivener's online help.

Write on!

Need more help? Sign up for an online class, read more Scrivener articles, or schedule a private training session. If you don't already have it, you can download Scrivener here.

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Tech Tuesday: Snapshots and Unused Scenes in Scrivener

Writing Life11 Comments

If you're planning to revise a scene (or whole section of your MS), it's smart to keep a backup of the old version in case you change your mind. Especially if you're making major changes.

Within Scrivener, one option for keeping the original version of a scene is through the Snapshots feature. It allows you to roll back to the old version of a document, and is a quick, painless way to save a document version before you edit.

You can even select multiple documents and take their snapshots all at once (Documents, Snapshots, Take Snapshots of Selected Documents).

Unfortunately, the only way to tell if a document has a Snapshot associated with it is by looking for a tabbed corner on the document icon. There's no list of Snapshots available.

For me, however, the biggest drawback to using Snapshots, is that you can't compare the earlier version side-by-side to the new version of your document, or to other snapshots of that file.

So what's a writer to do? I've created my own system.

Under the Research section in the Binder, I created a folder called Unused Scenes. This is where I store any scene that I've either taken out of the manuscript, or a copy of any scene I've drastically revised. I do this for several reasons.

  1. Sometimes I want to mine the scene for use elsewhere in the MS.
  2. I can compare the old and new scene side-by-side in the Editor pane using the Split Screen function.
  3. I can quickly see which scenes I have old versions of.
  4. Storing these scenes in the references section keeps them from being calculated in the word count, while leaving them easily accessible.

The Snapshots feature has its place, and I still use it frequently, however, for major revisions I prefer to copy the file and move the old version into my Unused Scenes folder.

I'm sure there are other ways to do this. Any ideas?

For great help on using Snapshots, choose Scrivener Help from the Help menu, or view the Snapshots video at the Scrivener Tutorial Videos page.

Happy editing!

Need more help? Sign up for an online class, read more Scrivener articles, or schedule a private training session. If you don't already have it, you can download Scrivener here.

Like this article?

It takes a lot of mint green tea and dark chocolate to fuel these posts. If you found something helpful, please consider a small donation to my pantry (via PayPal, cc accepted). Thank you!

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