How to restore a past version of your visualization
When you’re visualizing data, you make dozens of small and big decisions – from which chart type to use, to colors, headline, annotations, and so much more. But we all know that not every idea turns out great. Sometimes, you wish to go back in time. That's what Datawrapper's edit history is for.
How to use edit history
As you’re making edits to all your visualization, Datawrapper automatically keeps storing new versions of your chart, map, or table. To start using Datawrapper’s edit history, simply open a visualization and make edits – everything else will happen automatically. The edit history is available for all Datawrapper teams and users.
Versions of your visualizations are saved every time you publish your visualization, when you change the chart type, or when you stop editing for at least one minute.
You can access all saved versions with the little Edit history option above the four steps in the visualization editor. You will find this option in all chart and map types as well as in tables, no matter which step you're in:
Once you open the edit history, a pop-up opens. There, you see all saved past versions, and your current version (labeled as such). Click on one of the past versions to preview how the visualization looked like at that point in time. Now you have two options:
- Restoring a version will overwrite the current version of the visualization with the content of the selected version.
- Duplicating a version will create a new copy of the visualization with the content of the selected version.
If you don't want to restore or duplicate any versions, click on Done in the bottom right.
How to revert to past published versions
Datawrapper’s edit history includes all past published versions, you can easily reset your visualization to exactly the version that your readers see (or used to see).
To revert your visualization to a past published state, click on Edit history, then look for one of these two labels next to the saved version:
- the green label called Published version. This is the version of your visualization that got published the last time you hit the Publish button. If you embedded your visualization somewhere, this is the version your readers see.
- the gray label called Previous publish. This is a version of your visualization that you published at some point before the most recent publish.
As with any other past version, you can restore or duplicate published or previously published versions.
How long past versions are stored
Depending on the pricing plan you are on, past versions are stored for a different time period:
- free plan: 30 days
- Custom plan: 90 days
- Enterprise plan: 365 days
Do you have any questions about edit history that are not answered here? Let us know at support@datawrapper.de.