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Documents and tabs

Shotwork works on two kinds of document, and any number of them can be open at once, one tab each. What you have not saved is snapshotted as you go, so a crash costs you seconds rather than an afternoon.

Two kinds of document

Document Extension Holds See
Shot list .shotwork Videos, the shots marked in them, and their details Marking shots
Reel .swreel Which shots play, in what order, with music, overlays and cards Building a reel
  • File › New Shot List (Ctrl+N) and File › New Reel start an empty one of each, and File › New Draft Reel… starts a reel filled from your ratings.
  • File › Open… (Ctrl+O) opens either kind. A .swreel file opens as a reel, and anything else as a shot list.
  • File › Open Recent lists the last ten shot lists and reels, newest first, and File › Open Recent Video does the same for videos. A file that is missing right now is hidden but not forgotten, so work on an unplugged drive comes back with the drive.
  • Opening a file that is already open switches to its tab.
  • A shot list opens into the current tab when that tab is an empty shot list you never touched, and into a new tab otherwise.

How it works

The tab bar appears once a second document is open, and hides again when only one is left.

  • A tab shows the document's name, an icon for its kind, and a dot after the name while it has unsaved changes. Hover it for the file's full path. A shot list you have never saved is Untitled, and a new reel Untitled Reel.
  • Drag a tab to reorder the tabs.
  • Each tab keeps its own selection, filter, loop mode and undo history. The detail panel follows whichever tab you are on.
  • There is one viewer. Switching to a shot-list tab loads its video at the frame it was on when you left.
  • Closing the only tab never leaves the window empty: a shot list empties in place, and a reel is replaced by an empty shot list.

The title bar reads Shotwork, followed by the current tab's file name once it has one.

Saving

File › Save (Ctrl+S) saves the current tab's document, and File › Save As… (Ctrl+Shift+S) saves it under a new name.

  • Save Shot List suggests shots.shotwork, and Save Reel suggests the reel's name. The extension is added if you leave it off.
  • A save is written whole or not at all. Shotwork writes to a temporary file and swaps it into place, so a crash during a save never leaves a half-written file.
  • A saved document joins Open Recent and the Library.

When you close a tab or the window:

  • A document that already has a file is saved without asking.
  • A document that has never been saved asks Save before closing?, with Save, Discard and Cancel. Save opens the save dialog, and canceling that cancels the close.
  • An empty tab you never touched closes without asking.
  • If saving on close fails, Could not save names the file and the error and asks before closing anyway. The work stays recoverable.

Unsaved work and recovery

Two seconds after your last change, Shotwork snapshots every open document that has unsaved changes into its app data folder. Saving deletes the snapshot, so one exists only while there is something to lose.

After a crash, the next launch asks Recover unsaved work?, naming the most recent document with unsaved changes and when they were made.

  • Yes reopens it, marked unsaved, for you to save.
  • No deletes that snapshot.

If older snapshots from earlier sessions are waiting too, Discard older unsaved snapshots? offers to clear them all at once.

Undo history is not part of recovery. Each document keeps up to 200 undo steps, and only while it is open.

What this means when you…

  • …open a file that is already open: its tab comes to the front.
  • …close the last tab: you get an empty shot list, never an empty window.
  • …crash in the middle of an edit: reopen Shotwork and choose Yes. At most the last two seconds are gone.
  • …close a document that has a file: it is saved, whatever you changed. To back changes out, undo them with Ctrl+Z before you close.
Where snapshots are kept

Snapshots go in the recovery folder of Shotwork's app data, one file per document. A saved document's snapshot is named from its file name and a hash of its full path, so two shot lists with the same name in different folders do not collide, and every never-saved tab has its own. A snapshot that cannot be read is skipped, and never stops Shotwork from starting.