Writing in a browser usually stops when the connection does: a train goes into a tunnel, the café's network drops, a storm takes the broadband out, and the page shows an error. Retroprose is built to carry on. It keeps your writing on your own device as you type, lets you work for hours with no connection, and sends everything to your account when the connection comes back.
This guide explains how to get ready, what works offline, and what happens when you are back online.
Get ready while you are online
Offline writing works on any device where you have opened Retroprose and signed in while connected. Before a journey:
- Open Retroprose on the device you will take, while it still has a connection, and sign in. Tick "Remember me on this device", which keeps you signed in for 30 days.
- Leave "Keep all documents on this device" on. It is on to start with, in the Settings part of your account page. It keeps a copy of every document on the device, so any of them opens with no connection, not only the ones you opened lately.
- Install it as an app, if you like (see below). It opens straight to your writing, even with no connection.
That is all. There is nothing to download or switch on before you go.
While you are offline
When the connection goes, the status line at the foot of the screen says "Offline", and a message says your work is kept on this device. Keep writing. Autosave carries on, saving to the device two seconds after you stop typing.
What works with no connection:
- Writing and editing, with two documents open at once.
- Opening any document kept on the device.
- List files: making, renaming, moving and deleting documents and folders, and searching their names.
- Every editing tool: search and replace, Block, Typeover, Undelete, footnotes, tables, headings, lists, links, alignment and reveal codes.
- Spell check, your personal word list, and the thesaurus for letters you have looked up before on this device.
- Word count, word goals and File, Properties.
- Downloading a document as a Markdown file, and uploading Markdown and text files.
- The screen colours, fonts, text size and every other setting.
- Your writing stats, which keep counting.
What waits for a connection:
- Exports to Word, PDF, OpenDocument, HTML and plain text, and print preview, which are made on our server.
- Older versions of a document, and uploading Word files.
- The dashboard and the account page. With no connection, Retroprose opens the editor instead.
- Documents made or changed on another device since this one was last online.
If you choose something that needs a connection, the status line says so, for example "Offline: export to Word needs a connection". For the full list at any time, open Help (F3) and press O.
When the connection comes back
You do not need to do anything. Retroprose notices the connection, and the server, are back, and sends everything in the order you did it: new folders and documents, renames and moves, then your writing, then your settings and stats. The status line says what was sent.
If you changed the same document on another device while this one was offline, the two sets of changes are merged, paragraph by paragraph. Changes to different paragraphs simply combine. Only a paragraph changed in both places is kept twice: the server's version stays in the document, and yours goes into a copy in the same folder with "(conflict)" in its name, so no words are ever lost.
If your session ran out while you were away, a box asks you to sign in again without leaving the page, and everything waiting is sent once you have.
When our server is down
The same goes for the rare times our server cannot save, during maintenance for example. The status line says "Server unavailable" in place of "Offline", and everything above works the same way: you keep writing, and your work is sent when the server is back.
Install Retroprose as an app
Retroprose can be installed on a computer, a tablet or a phone, from the browser, with no app shop. Installed, it opens in its own window with no address bar, it opens straight to your writing with no connection, and more of the function keys work, as the browser keeps fewer of them for itself.
- On a computer: open Retroprose in a browser that can install web apps and look for the install button at the right of the address bar, or Install in the browser's menu.
- On a phone or a tablet: open the browser's menu, or its Share button, and choose Install app or Add to Home Screen.
Your account, documents and settings are the same in the app as in the browser.
On a shared computer
The copies kept on a device are for working offline, so think about who else uses it. On a shared or borrowed computer, sign out when you finish: signing out clears the copies from the device. On your own laptop, you can leave them in place, ready for the next journey. You can also turn "Keep all documents on this device" off for any device in the Settings part of your account page.
Try it
Open the demo, start typing, then turn off your connection and carry on. The demo keeps its text in the browser tab and never needs the server, so it is a fair taste of writing offline.