Return to a draft and reuse rows safely

Nothing is stored until you ask

The three WorkFormKit tools — status report, meeting minutes, and project handover — edit the document in the browser. Opening a tool does not restore yesterday’s work. Closing the tab does not save it. There is no account, and the text is not uploaded to WorkFormKit.

Each tool keeps at most one saved draft in this browser. Save draft in the toolbar and Save on this device under Drafts, backups & imports call the same action. The status line should say Saved on this browser after that. Further edits change it to Unsaved changes. Save again when you want the stored copy to match. If browser storage is blocked, the page says so and points you to a JSON backup instead. The privacy policy describes the local draft; this guide is the operating procedure.

The issue log, action tracker, and deliverables register are blank downloads, not tools. They do not have Save draft, JSON import, or Paste rows. Maintain those in your own editor. The guides for the issue log, action tracker, and deliverables register say what to copy by hand into a tool.

Leave, come back, and keep a file you control

1. Open the tool that matches the document. Start blank for real work. Load example only to see a complete fictional Northstar record. The example banner tells you to replace the sample. If the page is still clean, Load example or Start blank replaces it immediately. If you have unsaved edits, the page asks “Replace the current draft?” and offers Back up current draft. Keep editing leaves your text alone.
2. Move through Basics, Write, and Track in any order. On a small screen, Edit and Preview show one view at a time. Review & export stays available from either view.
3. When the draft is worth keeping, choose Save draft. That writes one draft for this tool only. The status report draft does not keep your minutes. Come back later and look for “Pick up where you left off.” The banner names the saved document. Choose Continue saved draft. The fields stay empty until you do; the page will not load the draft by itself. Restore saved draft inside the details panel does the same restore.
4. Download JSON backup before you rely on the browser copy. The JSON file contains the entries, including fields hidden by Omit blank fields and unused rows. Store it somewhere you control. Copy document text is for pasting into a message. If the browser blocks automatic copying, a box lets you select the text yourself. That text is not a backup you can import.
5. To resume on another browser, use Import a backup for this tool and choose the JSON file. The file must be a WorkFormKit document of this tool’s kind, at most 200 KB, with the expected fields. A minutes backup opened on the status report tool is rejected. After a successful import the note says to confirm the contents and remove sample details. Import does not merge with what is on screen. If the tab has unsaved edits, confirm the replacement first.
6. On Track, Paste rows adds spreadsheet rows to that table only. Copy from Excel or Google Sheets so the columns are tab-separated and in the order shown in the dialog, including the status choices it lists. Dates are YYYY-MM-DD. Choose Preview rows, read whether existing rows are kept or untouched empty rows will be replaced, then Add these rows. Cancel, Escape, or editing the pasted text after a preview clears the preview and adds nothing.

Common mistakes, and the correction

Edge cases that lose work if you rush them

One draft, two documents. Saving another status report replaces the saved one only after you confirm Replace the saved draft. If another tab changes the saved draft while that question is open, the save is refused until you review it and save again. Deleting has the same guard.

Delete saved draft. This removes the saved copy for this tool. Entries still in the tab, and files already downloaded, stay. Back up from that dialog if you might need the saved copy. The tab is not cleared. Save again if you still want a local draft.

An older saved draft with no time. The return banner says the save time is unavailable instead of inventing one. You can still continue it. Treat the contents as unverified and read them before you export.

Paste limits. The whole batch is refused if there are more than 50 data rows, a row has too many columns, a status is outside the listed choices, a date is not a real YYYY-MM-DD day, a cell exceeds 600 characters, or the paste exceeds 200 KB. A short row is allowed: missing cells at the end stay blank, and a blank status becomes the first listed status. That default is Not started for minutes actions and milestones, and Not ready for handover items. Preview shows it. Change it before you add if it is wrong.

Where paste lands. Filled rows are kept and new rows are appended. The same action pasted twice becomes two rows; nothing updates a row in place. An untouched placeholder is replaced. Duplicate copies a row until the table reaches 50. Undo removal sits under the editor and clears when you load another document. At 50 rows, undo asks you to remove a row first.

Compact output, print, and a shared browser. Omit blank fields is remembered with the draft, so a restored draft may still hide empty fields in the output. The text remains in the editor. Print / save PDF opens the browser print dialog; choose Save as PDF and check the page breaks. That snapshot is not a blank template PDF. Anyone using this browser profile can open the saved draft, so delete it when you finish on a shared computer.

What save and paste will not do

• They will not keep more than one saved draft per tool, sync it to another device, or recover a draft after the browser has cleared site data. The JSON file is the copy you can move.
• They will not merge two JSON files or merge a paste into an existing row. Replacement and append are the only behaviours, and append never overwrites a filled row.
• They will not check that an owner agreed, that a date is still realistic, or that sample text is gone. Read the example or import banner before you export.
• They will not turn copied text, Word, or Excel back into the editor. Only the JSON backup round-trips.
• They will not paste into the three blank registers. Those pages have downloads only. If a paste is refused, the tool’s message is the reason; the rows stay out until a corrected preview is added.

Fictional sequence: Alex opens the status report example, reads the fictional banner, and chooses Start blank for the real period. Thursday’s update is saved in that browser, with a JSON backup downloaded before shutdown. On Friday, Continue saved draft brings it back. The blocked tests are pasted into Milestones only after Preview rows shows 2026-10-09 and Blocked. Saving the draft did not verify the launch date.