Chapters v4 has a fairly big addition tucked into a little dropdown: snapshots! You can now save a version of your whole book as you go, without exporting a separate JSON file every time you want to keep a draft. Each snapshot saves the current book, including chapter notes. Give it a name and a brief description to remind yourself what it represents, perhaps a finished first draft or the moment before you decide to rewrite that ending.
If a new direction doesn’t quite work out, restore an earlier snapshot and carry on from there. Snapshots are saved when you choose, rather than automatically. I think it’s a lovely bit of freedom to try something different, knowing there’s a draft you can come back to.
Exporting a book backup now includes all its snapshots too. Importing that backup replaces everything in the current book, including its snapshot history. Don’t worry, Chapters warns you that this is a destructive operation and asks you to confirm before anything is overwritten. As your great novel grows, it’s definitely worth backing it up periodically. If you need to restore a backup, it’s best to create a new book and import from within it.
There are a couple of smaller additions too. ‘Find’ for, well, finding text. Plus a little pulsing cloud in the library toolbar lets you know when iCloud is working away. Happy writing!