Alternates

An alternate lets you keep two or more versions of a passage and decide later.

Make one

1. Select the passage.
2. In the menu that appears, choose Make alternate (the layers button).
3. The passage now has a small badge with arrows and a count such as "Version 1 of 2".
4. Write your other version.

Flip between versions

Use the ‹ and › arrows on the badge. The version on screen is the live text of your chapter.

Choose one

When you decide, press Keep this on the badge. Rescriptus keeps the version on screen and removes the others from the chapter. They stay in History if your project is on GitHub and you want one back.

While undecided

• Every version stays saved in the chapter's file, tucked in a comment that other tools ignore. Readers of the plain file, and your exports, see only the live version.
• The word count counts the live version.
• The footer shows "1 undecided alternate".
• The ready check does not pass while any alternate is undecided.

Rules

• An alternate is all or nothing. You cannot edit text that covers only part of an alternate, for example a selection that runs from inside one into the next sentence. Rescriptus refuses the edit, so that what is on screen always matches the file.
• You cannot make an alternate that overlaps another one.
• Undo (Ctrl+Z) reverses making, flipping or keeping an alternate.

Each version has its own status

Versions carry a status like other prose. See Statuses explained.