The creative process can get a little messy. Ellipsus helps tame the chaos with drafts.
Create a draft
So, you’ve created a document that sketches out your initial idea. What now?
If you want to explore a few different directions—dialogue, character development, etc.—without prematurely committing, then drafts are a perfect fit.
To create a draft, select Create new draft at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar, then give your draft a clear name. (Alternatively, you can click the ellipsus on your document card and select New draft. Your draft will copy over the current text in your document. From there, you can make small changes, do a complete overhaul, start from scratch—the choice is yours! Create as many drafts as you need to work out your ideas.
Merge a draft
When you’re ready to move to the next stage of your writing, you can merge your draft with your main document. Open your draft and select Merge this draft. This will open the compare screen: The left side displays your current draft; the right side compares the current draft against the original document. The right side will likely include some color coding:
Text highlighted in green will be added to the main document.
Text highlighted in red will be removed.
Text that is not highlighted will be unchanged.
Review both screens to see how your draft differs from the original document—click the switch next to Scrolling to scroll both screens at the same time—then click Merge in the top right and follow the on-screen instructions.
Once merged, your original document will be updated with the latest changes and the current draft will be closed and set to Merged.
After merging, you can delete or continue editing your existing drafts, create new drafts, and continue merging until your work is ready to share.