yWriter 6 vs 7 format differences?

43 views
Skip to first unread message

Darthnewton

unread,
Jan 24, 2024, 9:05:18 PMJan 24
to yWriter
I was wondering what the differences between yWriter 6 and 7 file format
wise are?  I have some files in 6 and is that a problem? What would be
lost if you went from 7 to 6?

Simon Haynes

unread,
Jan 24, 2024, 9:22:08 PMJan 24
to ywr...@googlegroups.com
It's easy to convert them to YW7, which can still be opened in yWriter 5 and yWriter 6, so there's no real benefit to sticking with an older format. At the same time, there's no real point to going through old projects and converting them to a newer format either, if you've finished editing them. yWriter 5/6/7 can open anything from yWriter 2 and later, and YW2 files are over 20 years old now. (The original YWP - yWriter1 - file was just a text file with a list of DOC files that would open in Word when you clicked them.)

From what I recall, without looking it up, there would be some very minor things to do with exporting that would be lost if saving to an older project format - e.g. tags in the custom ebook exporters, that sort of thing.

The YW7 format is also capable of keeping fields it doesn't recognise, whereas the YW6 and YW5 formats will just throw them away. (This was important for IOS/Android/MacOS as it's much harder to keep all the versions in sync and yet they all need to be able to open a project and save it out without discarding any fields.)

This makes the YW7 format future-proof.  It means I don't need to create a new format for future versions of yWriter.


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "yWriter" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ywriter+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ywriter/2d2c4bf6-f177-9e62-7f5b-1f744d659752%40gmail.com.


--

--
Visit Spacejock Software, the home of yWriter, FCharts and more
Visit spacejock.com.au for my articles on writing and publishing novels.

Darthnewton

unread,
Jan 27, 2024, 9:46:58 PMJan 27
to ywr...@googlegroups.com
Thanks Simon.  Although I bet a older version of YW5 won't open a YW6/7
file.  But a minor point. :)

Simon Haynes

unread,
Jan 27, 2024, 11:32:42 PMJan 27
to ywr...@googlegroups.com
Yep, there's a version of yWriter5 on my site which is very old, and meant to work with Windows 2000. That one certainly wouldn't know about yw6/7


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "yWriter" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ywriter+u...@googlegroups.com.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages