v0.24.0

Drafts and Cuts. Start new draft keeps your script as Draft 01, 02, and so on, each with an ID of its own, and Draft by draft shows how it changed. Cuts keeps everything you cut, for good, to browse for ideas, and replaces Deleted scenes. The desktop app now writes <script>.cuts.md and a <script> drafts folder beside your script, without asking (for Boca.fountain: Boca.fountain.cuts.md and Boca drafts/); Chrome and Edge ask once for the script's folder, and other browsers keep them in the browser, with Export drafts and cuts.

Added

• Drafts. Start new draft… (the Drafter menu, the command palette, the Drafts list, and the desktop app's File menu) keeps your script as it is now as a numbered draft, with an optional note such as "sent to Sam for notes", and you carry on writing the next one. Drafts are numbered Draft 01, Draft 02, and so on; a number is never used twice, and Drafter never starts a draft by itself. Any script works this way, including one written before this release or opened from Final Draft, Highland, or Fade In: what is there becomes Draft 01. Freezing text that hasn't changed since the last draft asks first.
• Every draft has an ID worked out from its exact text (SHA-256), shown as seven characters such as a3f9c2e. Typing four or more of them in the command palette finds the draft, in any of your scripts.
• The Drafts list (Drafts…, or the "Draft 03" in the status bar) shows each draft, newest first, with its ID, date, words, note, and a line such as "Draft 03 begins — builds on Draft 02 (a3f9c2e)". Read opens a draft read-only beside your script, to copy from; Compare shows what changed against now or another draft; Restore as a new draft keeps what you have as a draft first, then brings the old text back as the draft you are writing, in one undo; and each has Copy full ID and Edit note…. Its filter finds a draft by number ("2", "02", "draft 2"), ID, or note. Drafts can't be deleted, and they show in History above the snapshots.
• Draft by draft… shows how the work changed, one draft to the next: for each step, its note and date, the words added or taken out, the scenes (or chapters and sections) added, cut, and changed, and how much of the text is new. Open a step in Compare and walk with Previous step and Next step; beside the changes, "Cut while writing Draft 02" lists that step's cuts, with Show in Cuts.
• Cuts. Cuts… keeps everything you cut, for good, in screenplays, stage plays, and Markdown documents alike: a whole scene, chapter, or section; a whole speech, action paragraph, transition, paragraph, or list item taken out of one that is still there, at any length; and any run of 12 or more words taken out, or replaced by quite different words. Typo fixes, small rewordings, and moved text are not cuts. Cuts are found each time a snapshot is kept, never as you type, and restoring, opening, or reloading a script makes none.
• The Cuts list is for browsing for ideas. Group cuts by Scene (or Section), so a scene trimmed over several drafts reads as one group, or by Draft. Each cut says when it was cut and in which draft ("Cut while writing Draft 03"), and has Put back (where it was: a scene between its old neighbours, a passage after the line it followed), Insert at cursor (at the next scene or paragraph after your cursor), and Copy. One undo takes back a Put back or an Insert. A cut you put back stays listed, marked. The filter finds words, headings, and draft numbers, and the list stays quick with thousands of cuts. In Compare, a scene or section that is gone has Find in Cuts.
• Cut before drafts. The first time v0.24.0 runs, it looks once through the snapshots you already have, in the background, and keeps what was cut there too, marked "Cut before drafts".
• Drafts and cuts as plain files beside your script. For Boca.fountain: a folder Boca drafts with Boca – Draft 01.fountain and so on (each your script as it was, with the draft's number, ID, date, and note in a short block at the end that other Fountain apps don't print), and Boca.fountain.cuts.md, a readable Markdown file of every cut. A draft file is never written over and none is ever deleted; the cuts file is read and merged before it is written again. Save As writes the whole set beside the new file and leaves the old one. The Drafts and Cuts lists always say where they are: "Saved beside Boca.fountain." or "In this browser only."
  • The desktop app writes them beside the script, always (an unsaved script's when it is first saved).
  • Chrome and Edge on a computer ask once, at your first new draft, for the folder that holds the script ("Keep drafts and cuts next to Boca.fountain?"), check that it does, and remember it for that script. Not now keeps them in the browser, and the lists' Keep next to Boca.fountain… asks again.
  • Firefox, Safari, and phones keep them in the browser. Export drafts and cuts, in both lists and in every browser, downloads Boca drafts and cuts.zip.
• Two computers. Opening a script, or coming back to Drafter after a while away, reads its drafts folder and cuts file and adds what another computer kept, through Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or any synced folder: every cut once, and every draft. If both computers started a Draft 04, both are kept ("Draft 04 (from another computer)", written as Boca – Draft 04 (2).fountain), and a draft file changed in another program is listed as "changed outside Drafter". Opening a draft file itself opens it read-only, as it was frozen, says "This is Draft 03 of Boca.", and offers Open a copy to keep writing (Save asks where to keep the copy; the draft file is never changed) and Open Boca instead.
• When they can't be written beside the script, the Drafts and Cuts lists say so instead of "Saved beside": "Couldn't write beside Boca.fountain: the disk is full.", with how to put it right, said once. One draft file that can't be written doesn't stop the rest, or the cuts file. A cut in the cuts file Drafter can't read (damaged by hand, say) is kept in the file as it is, never dropped, and a script renamed outside Drafter says once that its drafts and cuts now go under the new name.
• A help page, Drafts and cuts (Help, and the desktop app's Help menu), in plain words.
• 14 more trap documents, for hostile and damaged draft and cuts files (258 in all).
• .gitignore also allows a .env.sample (as well as .env.example); every other .env file stays out of the repository.
• Report a problem… and Suggest an idea…, in Help, the search, About, and the desktop app's Help menu. A dialog asks for a title and a few lines (what happened and what you expected, or what you'd like), adds your version info if you leave it on, and shows exactly what will be sent. Open on GitHub opens GitHub's new-issue page with it filled in, through new issue forms (.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/bug.yml, idea.yml, and config.yml), and you submit it there with a free GitHub account. Drafter sends nothing itself and never includes your script. A report is never lost: Copy report, Write an email, and Open on GitHub each put the whole report on the clipboard (the preview, never trimmed, and selectable to copy by hand), and say so, since a long one is trimmed to fit the link or the email; and the report is kept on this device until you choose Clear, through a closed tab, a reload, or a restart. Offline, it says to copy it and file it later. No GitHub account? Email cschweda@gmail.com from your own email app (the desktop app hands that one address to the email app, and no other mailto:). About has a contact line, and the help index and Privacy say what leaves your device, and when.
• An animated banner at the top of the README: the script page fans out into the colored revision pages, once. It's an SVG with CSS only, so it plays on GitHub, and it holds still for anyone who asks their computer for less motion.

Changed

• Cuts replaces Deleted scenes, in the More menu, the command palette ("deleted scenes" still finds it), the Drafter menu, History, and the phone's More. It keeps passages and Markdown sections as well as scenes, keeps them for good, and puts a cut back by its old neighbours' headings rather than from a snapshot.
• Drafter's database gains two tables, drafts and cuts. Every script, snapshot, and setting from v0.23 is kept as it is, and a tab of v0.23 left open still reads it.
• Drafter keeps a snapshot just before it starts a draft ("Before starting a draft") and before Restore as a new draft keeps your text as a draft, so cuts made just before are kept, with the draft they were made in.
• The Saving and your browser help page's Deleted scenes section is now Drafts and Cuts, and points to the new page; Why Drafter and Technical details say where drafts and cuts are kept.
• SECURITY.md's fallback is an email now: if GitHub's private report isn't there, email cschweda@gmail.com with the details, never a public issue. The README's Security section, What is Drafter?, and the new dialog say the same.

Removed

• Deleted scenes, replaced by Cuts (above). Its tab, its command, and its pane are gone; the command palette's "deleted scenes" opens Cuts.
• The P and H keys in the Deleted scenes list (Put back, and History of this scene). Each cut's Put back, Insert at cursor, and Copy are ordinary buttons in the Tab order.
• History of this scene from that list. A cut is kept apart from the snapshots, so it has no scene history to open; History of this scene is still in a scene's menu in the Outline, the Cards, and the Structure strip, and in the command palette.
• Compare that version with now, from the same list: Find in Cuts goes the other way, from Compare to the cut.

Fixed

• Nothing you cut ages out any more. Deleted scenes could list a scene only while a snapshot still held it, so a scene cut months ago was lost once its last snapshot was thinned away. Cuts keeps every cut for good, with its own text.
• Markdown documents keep what you cut too. Deleted scenes worked only for screenplays and stage plays.

Downloads

• Windows (x64): Drafter-0.24.0-windows-x64-setup.exe
• Linux: Drafter-0.24.0-linux-amd64.deb or Drafter-x86_64.AppImage
• Or write in your browser at drafter.dev. Free, no login.