So I am working on my new project/book. It is a sequel my first book.
While I write my new book, I need to open my first project from time to time to refer to old notes, what I said about a particular character, references etc. But I don’t want it to keep going through the same backing up as the current project every two seconds and when closing. One reason is that it is really annoying 8), but the second reason is that I may accidentally make changes and I really don’t want it to change.
You can turn off the individual project’s automatic backups via File > Back Up > Exclude from Backups. It sounds though like you’re really talking about preventing auto-saves, that happen every 2 seconds of inactivity. There is no way to do this, as it’s needed to keep the project in sync. It’s more than just saving textual changes; it’s saving the state of the project, which document is selected, what is loaded in the editor, which interface items you have displayed, etc.
The best thing to do is just make yourself a milestone backup copy via File > Back Up > Back Up To… I like to append the date in the name of mine. Then you can always restore that version if you need to.
Thanks for that. It seems inconsistent to allow one to be turned off and not the other. I understand the solution you mention and I agree with it, but I would like the ability to be able to exclude a project completely from backups.
What you are wanting is the ability to “lock” a whole project.
–Greg
Because when your project auto-saves it is not backup your project.The same is true generally: when you, for example, save a document in Word, you are not backing it up-- in fact, you are overwriting the file. Which is why you are worried about it, of course!
Yes. I agree. But whatever we call it I would like to ‘exempt’ it from the normal save/backup/overwriting process. To treat it like a ‘read only’ project.
Perhaps I should put this into the Wish List section of the forum…
I compile any text I need from project A into a single file or a handful of files as suits the requirements of project B.
I copy that file/those files into project B’s research folder to save having project A open.
Alternatively, if I need all the text from project A, I start by making a definitive copy of project A as a backup. I then move the draft’s old contents into the research folder (or a sub-folder) and start the new story in the emptied draft folder.