Every writer has a story about losing work: the laptop that would not start, the file that would not open, the chapter saved over by an older one. Most of those losses could have been prevented by two habits: saving as you go, and keeping a copy somewhere else.
This guide sets out a simple plan, explains what Retroprose already does for you, and shows how to keep a copy of everything on your own disk.
The rule of three
The rule that people who look after data use is easy to remember:
- Three copies of anything that matters: the one you work on, and two more.
- On two different kinds of storage, such as an online account and a disk or memory stick, so one fault cannot reach them all.
- One of them somewhere else, away from your home or your bag, so a fire, a flood or a theft cannot take every copy.
Retroprose gives you the first two copies without any effort. The third is a few minutes' work once a month.
What Retroprose does as you write
- Autosave. Your writing is saved two seconds after you stop typing, and at least every 30 seconds while you keep going. F10 or Ctrl+S saves at once, if you like the habit. The status line says "Saved" with the time.
- A copy on your device. Before each save is sent, a copy is kept on your own device, so nothing is lost if the connection drops. With no connection at all, you keep writing and the changes are sent when you are back. See How to keep writing with no internet connection.
- Every document on every device. Each device you use keeps a copy of all your documents, so a lost laptop never means lost writing: sign in on another device and carry on.
- Clashes never lose words. If the same document is changed on two devices, the changes are merged. Where both changed the same paragraph, your version is kept in a copy with "(conflict)" in its name.
Older versions
As you write, Retroprose keeps older versions of each document: one every 10 minutes of editing, and one each time you save by hand. The free edition keeps the last 10 of each document, and the Zip disk and hard disk editions the last 50.
Press Ctrl+F10, or choose File, Revisions, to see them. Each one shows when it was kept, and you can read it, or restore it in place of the document. Older versions are on our server, so the Revisions screen needs a connection.
Older versions are your defence against the slow kind of loss: the scene you cut last Tuesday and want back, or a change you made late at night and regret in the morning.
The trash
A deleted document or folder goes to the trash for 30 days before it is gone for good. To get it back, open List files (F5), press 0 for the trash, choose the item and press 1. It goes back to the folder it came from, and if that folder was deleted too, the folder comes back with it.
Older versions count towards your storage, and so does the trash until it is emptied. On the free edition's 1.44 MB, that is worth knowing: empty the trash once you are sure.
Your own copy
The last copy of the three is the one you keep yourself, on a disk, a memory stick or another online service you trust. Retroprose makes it easy, on every edition:
- One document: File, Download, or 7 in List files, saves it as a Markdown file.
- A folder: choose the folder in List files and press 7. It comes as a zip file, with its folders inside.
- Everything: on your account page, "Download all my documents (.zip)" saves every document you have, in its folders, as Markdown files, with your personal word list and your writing stats.
Because the files are plain Markdown, they open in any text app on any computer, today or in 30 years, with nothing special to install. If you ever stop using Retroprose, your writing comes with you, complete.
How often?
- Once a month, download everything and put the zip file on a disk or memory stick, or in another online account.
- At every milestone, such as a finished draft or a manuscript sent out, download that folder and keep it with the date in its name.
- Now and then, check a copy. Open the zip and read a file or two. A copy you have never opened is only a hope.
Private folders
On the hard disk edition Hard disk edition, a private folder opens only with its own password or your passkey. While it is locked, nothing inside it is in the download of everything: a note in the zip names it instead. Unlock your private folders before you download, so your copy is complete.
On our side
Your documents are kept on our server in a London data centre, and the server is backed up every night to somewhere else in the UK. Those backups are there for us to recover from a disaster, not for getting back one document, which is what older versions and the trash are for. The copy that is entirely in your hands is the one you download.