Download everything

Download everything saves all your work as one .zip file you can open without Path of Prose: every book, live and archived, as Word, Markdown and plain text, every plan, bible and outline table as a spreadsheet file, every picture, and a full backup you can restore later.

Make the download

Open Account (the person icon at the top right), then Settings, then Your data, and choose Download everything. You can also use the Download everything link at the foot of My Books.

The dialog shows one tick, Include readable copies, which is on, and the estimated size with and without it. Leave it on for the whole archive. Turn it off to save only the backup, which is smaller.

Choose Download everything. The dialog shows each step, such as Book 3 of 7: Word file, and a bar. You can keep writing in another tab while it runs; it never changes your books. Cancel stops it, and nothing is saved. On a phone, when the file is ready, choose Save the file.

When it's done, the message says what was saved. If a part couldn't be made, such as a Word file that failed, the message names it, and Try again fetches only those parts.

What's in it

At the top, README.txt explains each folder and what opens it.

  • Books/ and Archived books/: one folder per book. Manuscript holds the book as Word (.docx), Markdown (.md) and plain text (.txt). The plan, bible, outline, notes, progress and snapshots are tables saved as .csv files, which Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice, Google Sheets or any text editor can open. Each book's trash is kept apart in its own Trash folder.
  • Series/ and Universes/: each one's details and shared bible.
  • Ideas/ and Templates/: your stored ideas and outline templates.
  • Backup/: the backup Path of Prose restores, unchanged.

In the tables, a cell that starts with =, +, - or @ gets a ' in front, so a spreadsheet never runs it as a formula. A cell longer than 32,000 characters is cut short, and its whole text is in the .md file it names. The .md files and the backup keep your exact words.

Offline, or with something missing

Offline, the download is made from what this device holds, without the Word files. The Markdown and text copies are still there. Anything left out is named in the finish message and in MISSING.txt inside the zip; nothing is left out silently. Download again when you're online for the Word files.

A large account

A phone can make files up to 400 MB, a computer up to 2 GB. When everything won't fit in one file, the dialog lists the files it will make, with their sizes, before you start: the backup, the readable files and the pictures. The backup is named Backup with the date, and the dialog marks it Keep this one to restore. Each file has its own Save the file. If a part is too large for this device, the dialog says so and suggests a computer.

Restore it

Restoring needs a connection. Open Settings, then Your data. On the Restore a backup row, choose Restore… and pick the backup: the one-file download, or the file marked keep this to restore.

Before anything changes, Restore this backup? lists the books it will make. Choose Restore. Each book comes back as a new book, so a book you already have appears twice. Your existing books are not changed or overwritten.

It's a good habit to download everything now and then, and to keep the file somewhere other than this device.

If the service ever closes

You'd have at least 90 days' notice and at least 21 days of read-only access in which Download everything keeps working. Our terms of use have the details.