Docs / Your documents
History and versions
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Prettify saves the documents you open and edit, so you can reopen recent work and track changes over time. History is kept on your device. Everyone gets recent documents; Pro adds version tracking and version compare.
What history saves
Prettify saves a document to history when you open it or edit it. Each document has a name, a format, and one or more versions. Each version keeps the raw text, a short preview, a size, and a timestamp.
History is stored only on your device, in your browser's IndexedDB, in compressed form. Prettify does not upload your history. See Privacy for the full statement.
Prettify avoids duplicates. If you load the same text again, or the same name and format, Prettify adds a version to the existing document instead of making a new one.
Free and Pro limits
The limits depend on your plan.
| Item | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Documents shown | 5 most recent | 30 |
| Versions per document | 1 (latest only) | up to 50 |
| Compare two versions | No | Yes |
On Free, each edit replaces the latest version in place, so a Free document keeps one version. On Pro, each distinct edit adds a new version, up to 50 per document.
Prettify stores up to 30 documents whatever your plan. Free shows the 5 most recent. The rest stay saved on your device and return if you upgrade.
Large documents
HTML and SVG documents over 5 MB are not kept in History. A notice says: "This file is too large to keep in History."
Open history
You can open history two ways:
- In the editor, select the History button in the header.
- Open the Command Palette with
Cmd+K(Mac) /Ctrl+K(Windows, Linux), then choose History.
The editor shows history as a panel. The full page is at /app/history.
Reopen a document or a version
In the History panel, select a document to load its most recent version into the editor.
Pro keeps more than one version per document. To load an older version, expand the document in the History panel, then select the version. Prettify loads that version into the editor. On the History page, expand the document, then select Open on the version.
Compare versions (Pro)
Pro can compare two versions of a document side by side.
- Expand a document to show its versions.
- Select two versions.
- Select Compare Versions.
Compare is available in the History panel and on the History page.
Manage history on the History page
The History page at /app/history manages all your documents. It shows a storage summary: document count, version count, total size, and the age of the oldest version.
You can:
- Search documents by name or preview text.
- Filter by format.
- Sort by newest, oldest, name, or largest.
- Open, Rename, Duplicate, or Delete a document from its menu.
- Select documents and Delete Selected.
- Export your history to a JSON file, and Import it back.
Delete and clear
To delete one document, open its menu and select Delete. Prettify asks you to confirm.
To delete a single version (Pro), expand the document and select Delete on that version. Deleting the only version deletes the document.
To remove everything, select Clear All. Prettify asks you to confirm. Clear All deletes every document and version and cannot be undone. It also clears your open tabs and the autosaved current document.
All deletes are local to your device.
Where history lives
History never leaves your device. To remove it, clear the site data for prettify.tools in your browser, or uninstall the desktop app. For more detail, see Privacy.