By the end of this guide, you'll be able to find and restore any earlier version of your work in seconds.
The short version
Every time Draftingboard saves your work, it quietly keeps a copy of that moment. You can browse those copies at any time, preview any of them, and restore one with a single click — without permanently losing what you have now.
A snapshot is created automatically:
Every auto-save
Roughly every two seconds of inactivity — the most frequent kind.
Every force push (⌘⇧S)
Tagged "force push" so you can find this checkpoint easily later.
Before you restore a version
Tagged "pre-restore snapshot" — so you can always undo a restore.
Draftingboard keeps up to 50 snapshots per document. When you reach 50, the oldest one drops off.
Click History in the top-right of the editor toolbar. A panel slides in from the right showing all snapshots for the current document.
Each snapshot shows:
When
Shown as a relative time ("3 minutes ago") or a full timestamp.
Word count
How many words were in the document at that moment.
Mode
Which writing mode was active — Ideation, First Draft, or Freeform.
Label
If the snapshot was tagged (e.g. "force push"), it appears below the timestamp.
Click any snapshot in the list to see its full content in the preview pane. Scroll through it freely. Your current document is untouched — you're just looking.
Scenario: You wrote 800 words yesterday and deleted a paragraph this morning that you now want back.
Click the snapshot you want.
Click Restore this version.
Draftingboard automatically saves a "pre-restore snapshot" of your current work first — so you can undo the restore by coming back and selecting that entry.
The restored content becomes your active document and saves immediately. To push the restored version to the cloud, press ⌘⇧S / Ctrl⇧S.
Edit boldly in Freeform mode.
Version history is your safety net. If you cut a section and regret it, it's in history.
After a long session, force push.
It tags the snapshot as "force push" so you can find that checkpoint easily in the list later.
History is per-document.
Each document has its own independent snapshot list. Project chapters each have their own history too.
Up next