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Document History

Version Browsing in Atlas

Version Browsing in Atlas

Atlas automatically tracks changes to your documents, letting you browse, compare, and restore previous versions.

Automatic Snapshots

Versions are created automatically when a document is saved and its content has actually changed. Atlas uses content hash comparison to avoid creating duplicate versions when no real changes were made.

You can also create a version manually at any time with Cmd+S. This is useful before making major changes — the version browser let's you name the version something descriptive like "Before restructuring" so you can find it easily later.

Each version records:

  • A content snapshot of the document at that point in time
  • The device name and type where the edit was made
  • A timestamp of when the version was created

The Version Browser

Open the Version Browser from the editor menu to browse all versions of a document chronologically.

Previewing Versions

Select any version to see a read-only preview of its content. Sketch documents display a visual preview of the drawing.

Organizing Versions

  • Titles — Add a descriptive title to any version for context (e.g., "Before restructuring chapter 3")
  • Notes — Attach longer notes to a version for additional detail
  • Starring — Star important versions to bookmark them for quick access

Restoring a Version

Two restore options are available:

  • Restore to original — Overwrites the current document content with the selected version. A safety snapshot of the current content is created automatically before restoring.
  • Restore to new document — Creates a copy of the version as a new document, leaving the original untouched.

Info

A safety snapshot is always created before any restore operation, so you can recover your current content if needed.

Versions and Sync Conflicts

When the same document is edited on multiple devices before changes sync, Atlas creates a safety snapshot of your local content before any conflict resolution takes place. This means your work is never lost — regardless of how the conflict is resolved, the version browser preserves what you had.

For details on how conflicts are detected and resolved, see iCloud Sync and Conflicts.

See Also