Versions and conflicts

Pick a version in the list: the pane shows an overview of it (its tracks and where its notes are), and what you can do with it:

• Open Read Only opens that version to look at, play and practise; nothing can be edited. It opens in a window of its own beside the song, so the song stays as it is.It opens in place of the song; Back to the Song returns to the song as it is now. Its strip says which version it is: Duplicate as New Song keeps the version as a song of its own (“Funk Groove (3 Oct)”), and Restore… asks once, then makes it the current version, with Undo in a note. Compare shows what changed since that version in the Changes pane.
• Restore makes that version the current one. The version you had stays in the history, so a restore can itself be undone by restoring again.
• Name… gives the version a name, shown in the list. Named versions are kept for good.
• Publish This Version makes a page on stab.page from it, or, when the song has one page, Show on the Page puts this version on it. See Publish.

Someone who can only view a shared song looks at its versions but doesn’t restore or name them; publishing is the owner’s.

The Changes pane shows what changed in the song since another moment, and lets you take back what you choose. Choose Changes in a pane’s view picker (The Song group), then Compare with When I Opened It to see everything you changed in this sitting, or Versions… to pick an earlier version: a Stab Cloud song’s from its History, a song on this MacPC’s from the versions it keeps of it (below). For a song on this Mac, Version History… opens the Changes pane too.

Each row is one change, marked + (added), − (removed) or ~ (changed): the song’s tempo, time signatures, markers and chords first, then each track’s notes bar by bar (“Bar 11 · 3 notes changed”, with what moved: “fret 5 → 7”), then the sound and the mixer. A clip made by writing its first notes is part of those notes’ row (“Bar 1 · 3 notes added”), not a change of its own. All, Notes, Song, Tracks and Sound filter the list.

Take Back puts that change back as it was, as one step (taking back every note of a clip they made takes the clip too): Undo brings it back, and playing together, everyone hears it. Taking back something that would remove a track or its recordings asks first. Take Back All… returns the whole song to that moment, also as one step. Stop Comparing puts the comparison away; nothing changes in the song.

Someone who can only view a song can still compare, but not take back.

What changed, where it happened

While the song is compared, every Editor and Arranger pane marks what changed in place: a note added has a green ring, a note changed a blue ring with its old fret small beside it, and a note removed comes back as a red ghost where it was. Each ring stands a little off its note, so it shows on a track of any colour, and carries the change’s sign on its corner: +, − or ~, as in the Changes pane. A bar along the pane’s foot says what it’s compared with (its × stops comparing) and how many changes there are; ‹ and › go from one change to the next, each in a card that says what changed, with Take Back (one undo step, as in the Changes pane). The foot also shows the song’s versions on a timeline up to Now (a Stab Cloud song’s History, or the versions this device keeps of a song on it): click one, or press ⌥← and ⌥→,, or press Alt+← and Alt+→, to compare with the version before or after (a Stab Cloud version is fetched first), and Open Read Only opens the one you’re comparing with.

The score, side by side

A Score pane colours what changed too (added notes green, changed ones blue) and tints the bars they’re in; a legend at its foot names the colours. Changes Only fades everything that didn’t change, and Take Back Bar N takes back what changed in the caret’s bar, as one step. Two scores laid over each other can’t be read, so the version is shown beside the song instead: choose Compare Side by Side from the Score pane’s ⚙, and a second Score pane opens beside it with the version, read only, its removed notes in red, linked so the two scroll and play together. Show the Song, in its ⚙, turns it back into an ordinary Score pane, as stopping the comparison does.

Versions of songs on this device

A song that isn’t in Stab Cloud keeps a short history of its own on this MacPC: the song as it was when you opened it (one a day you edit it), one an hour while you edit it, and, for earlier days, the first and the last of each day. They’re kept for 7 days; Settings › General turns them off or keeps them from 1 to 30 days, and says how much room they take; Clear Versions… removes every one, after asking. They hold the song’s notes and settings, not its recordings. Undo stays undo: these are what’s there after the song is closed.

In the Changes pane, Versions… lists them, newest first (“15:10 — Saved after an hour of editing”, “Yesterday — Last of the day”). Each one can be compared with, opened read only, or removed. Opened read only, ‹ and › step to the version before or after, and Restore… brings the song back to that version in one step, with Undo in a note.

The web keeps no files of its own, so its versions are Stab Cloud songs’ History.