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Snapshots, History, and Comparison Views
Snapshots, History, and Comparison Views

Keep track of what's changing in your script.

Alice DuBois avatar
Written by Alice DuBois
Updated over a week ago

Scripto is designed to auto-save constantly, preserving your changes as you write. But sometimes writing means deleting, and later you might decide you need those deleted things after all. Auto-save will always keep the most current version of your script. But what if you cut a joke and now you want to put it back?

Snapshots, History, and Comparison View are powerful tools for preserving significant drafts or versions of your script so you can always get back to them.


What is a Snapshot?

A Snapshot saves your script at an exact moment in time, so you can always get back to it. Snapshots get saved to a script's Snapshot History. You can browse, read, or export any snapshot. You can also compare the current script to any saved snapshot to see what has changed.

How to Save a Snapshot

Scripto will automatically take snapshots at frequent intervals as you write. Scripto will also automatically take a snapshot when you perform certain actions like exporting the script or pushing to prompter.

But you can manually take a snapshot any time you want. Just click the Snapshot button in the editor toolbar. 

Snapshot your script anytime you have a version that you think you might want to get back to. It's especially useful to do at moments in the workflow when you're handing the script off to someone else for notes or edits. 


Snapshot History Panel

When you in the editor, open a document's Snapshot History from the panel on the left.

By default, the Snapshot History panel shows all of a document's snapshots, whether they were taken manually or automatically. You can switch the filter between All and Manual if you just want to see the snapshots that were taken by someone clicking the Snapshot button.


How to Rename a Snapshot

From the Snapshot History panel, click the ... menu

and select Rename snapshot

Change the generic snapshot name to something that's clear and descriptive, like "Act Two rewrite" or "Rehearsal Draft" and hit enter to the new name.


How to View a Snapshot

Click on any snapshot from the Snapshot History pane to open it. You'l be reading the script as it was written at the moment the snapshot was taken.

Note that snapshots are read only. You cannot make edits to a saved version, but you can:

  • Copy text from a snapshot to paste back into your current script

  • Export the snapshot as a PDF, Final Draft (FDX), or Fountain file

  • Copy a link to the snapshot and share it with a collaborator


How to compare the current script to any Snapshot

You can see what changed in a script by comparing the current document to an older snapshot.

  • From the Snapshot History panel, click the ... menu on the snapshot that you want to compare to the current script, then select either Revision asterisk comparison or Side-by-side comparison from the menu.

  • Or, when you have a snapshot open, you can click the tabs to move between the Snapshot view, the * Revision Asterisks view, and the Side-by-Side Comparison view.

Side-by-side comparison

Side-by-side shows text of the current script on the right and the text of the snapshot on the left. Changes between the snapshot and the current script are called out, with new text highlighted in green and deleted text highlighted in red.

  • By default, you are comparing the full script. but you can choose to compare a single slug at a time. The compare slugs feature is especially useful when there have been a lot of script changes but you just want to see, share or print the changes to one specific segment of the show. It's also a lifesaver when the show has been re-ordered and the Full Script comparison shows a moved slug as entirely new when it's actually just in a new position. Use compare slugs to zero in on the changes just to that one slug and see if there were any edits to it, beyond completely moving positions in the script.

  • In the Setting menu, you can change the number of lines of context that you see around the changes. You can also switch between the changes being called out in color or in black & white.

  • Copy Link will copy the URL of the side-by-side view to your clipboard so you can share it. If you're distributing a script revision, including a link to the side-by-side view of the current script compared to the last distribution gives people an easy way to see exactly what's changed.

  • From the Export menu, you can Print the side-by-side view. (Note that the black & white view is useful for printing you don't want to use up all your expensive color ink.)

Revision asterisk compare

The Revision Marks view shows the current script with revision marks showing where additions and deletions were made since the selected snapshot. New text is highlighted in green with a green + in the right margin. Deletions are indicated by a red - in the right margin, but the deleted text is not shown.

From the Export


Create a PDF with Revision Asterisks

From the Revision Asterisk comparison view, you can Print... or Export a PDF that will have industry-standard revision asterisks in the right margin of the document.

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