One of the common tasks that writers need to do is to undo or redo their changes in Scrivener. This can be useful when you make a mistake, change your mind, or want to experiment with different options. In this article, we will show you how to undo in Scrivener using different methods.

Scrivener is a word-processing program and outliner designed for writers. It was created by Literature and Latte. It offers features such as a corkboard, an outliner, a split screen mode, and templates for different genres and formats. It is available for macOS, Windows, iOS, and Linux.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts

The easiest way to undo or redo in Scrivener is to use keyboard shortcuts. These are the same as in most other applications:

• To undo the last action, press Ctrl+Z on Windows or Command+Z on Mac.
• To redo the last undone action, press Ctrl+Y on Windows or Command+Shift+Z on Mac.

A shortcut will only undo the last action you too. However, you can repeat these shortcuts multiple times to undo or redo more actions.

Using the Edit Menu to undo in Scrivener

Another way to undo or redo in Scrivener is to use the Edit menu. This is useful when you want to see a list of your recent actions and choose which ones to undo or redo.

• Click on Edit in the menu bar.
• To undo the last action, click on Undo. You can also see what the action was next to the word Undo.
• To redo the last undone action, click on Redo. You can also see what the action was next to the word Redo.

If you have not made any changes since you opened your project file, Undo and Redo will be greyed out and unavailable. When you type or make changes such as adding text, inserting a photo, bolding or italicizing, Undo will become active and available. Redo will become active and available once you have used Undo to reverse an action.

Using Snapshots

A third way to undo in Scrivener is to use snapshots. Snapshots are copies of your documents that you can create at any time and compare with your current version. This is useful when you want to revert to a previous version of your document or see how your document has changed over time.

• To create a snapshot, select the document you want to snapshot in the Binder and go to Documents > Snapshots > Take Snapshot.
• To view your snapshots, go to Documents > Snapshots > Show Snapshots. This will open a panel on the right side of your editor where you can see all your snapshots for the selected document.
• To compare your current version with a snapshot, select the snapshot you want to compare and click on Compare at the top of the panel. This will highlight the differences between the two versions in red (deleted text) and blue (added text).
• To revert to a snapshot, select the snapshot you want to revert to and click on Roll Back at the top of the panel. This will replace your current version with the selected snapshot.

You can also rename, delete, or export your snapshots using the buttons at the bottom of the panel.

NOTE: If you aren’t too fond of the Snapshots panel on the right side of the window, you can open the Snapshot Manager by going to Documents > Snapshots > Show Snapshots Manager. A free-floating panel with open. That panel has the same controls available as the Snapshots panel mentioned earlier. But in the Snapshots Manager panel, the Compare, Roll Back, =/- buttons are at the bottom of the panel.

You might also be interested in:

How to insert images in Scrivener.

A note about this tutorial. All of our Scrivener tutorials are personally written based on our own experience with Scrivener. If you would enjoy more in-depth training, we recommend Joseph Michael’s Learn Scrivener Fast Course  .