# Find a past edition

The site keeps every text of your legal documents that went live, with its dates. This article shows you how to read the history of a document, compare two editions and find the text that a person read or accepted.

## Before you start

- An edition is the text of a legal document as it was live, with its dates. It is created in Production, never when you save in the editor.
- The site keeps editions for as long as it exists, even for a document that has been removed. An edition is never erased.
- Your visitors see only the text currently in force and its date. Past editions stay on your side.

## Understand when an edition is created

Each time Production puts a different text live for a document, the site keeps it as a new edition. The edition records its date and the person who put it live. When another text replaces it, the end date is added.

| Situation | Result |
| --- | --- |
| Three corrections saved during the day, then the site published in the evening | A single edition. |
| A site publication that does not touch the document | No edition. |
| A color or a font changed | No edition: the site keeps only the words. |
| A typo corrected then published | A new edition, since visitors read the corrected text. |
| An earlier version of the site restored | The edition from that time comes back into force, with its number. No edition is created. |
| A new cookie added to the cookie table by Lovely Render | A new edition, in the name of Lovely Render. |
| A document removed from the site | Its editions stay. |

## Open the history of a document

1. In the administration menu, open **Legal documents**.
2. Click the title of the document, or **History** when you hover its row. The history opens in place of the editor.
3. On a translated document, choose the language in the tabs above the history. Each language has its own editions.

The **Editions** column lists the texts that Production has shown, the most recent at the top. On the right, you read the chosen edition as your visitors read it, without the header, the footer or the formatting.

![The history of the privacy policy: the Next edition card at the top, then the Editions column with edition 5 in force, edition 4 updated by Lovely Render and edition 2 put back online, then on the right the text of edition 5 with the Read, Compare and Print buttons.](https://static.lovelyrender.com/uploads/2026/10/886-produit-editions.png)

| Information | Example |
| --- | --- |
| Its number and its badge | **Edition 5** and **In force** for the one your visitors read. |
| Its dates | **Since October 3, 2026 at 6:12 PM**, or **From Sep 12, 2026 at 6:40 AM to Oct 3, 2026 at 6:12 PM** for a replaced edition. |
| Its cause | **Published by** followed by the person’s name. The other causes are in the table of causes of an edition. |
| Its changed lines | The lines added and removed compared with the previous edition, or **First text**. |
| Its requests | **214 submissions sent under this edition**: the requests received by your forms while it was in force. |
| Its acceptances | The number of acceptances of this edition, ticked with an **Acceptance** checkbox. |

| Put online by | Text of the edition |
| --- | --- |
| A site publication | **Published by** followed by the name, or **Put online by** followed by the name for the first edition. |
| The restoration of a site version | The name of the person and the date of the restored version, for example “Claire Roussel restored the site version of August 28, 2026”. |
| A scheduled publication | **Put online at its scheduled date**. |
| A change by Lovely Render | **Lovely Render updated how the text displays**. |

A text put back online by a restoration keeps its number and carries the **Back online** badge. A removed document shows at the top of the column **Withdrawn from the site**, the date of the removal and the person who removed it.

## Compare two editions

1. In the **Editions** column, click the edition to read.
2. Above the text, click **Compare**. The text is compared with the previous edition.
3. Optional: in the **compared to** list, choose another edition.
4. To go back to the full text, click **Read**.

Added lines are in green, removed lines in red and struck through. Identical lines are collapsed, for example **5 identical lines**.

![Edition 5 of the privacy policy compared with edition 4: a sentence about the newsletter removed in red, its new version added in green, then the contest paragraph added, between collapsed identical lines.](https://static.lovelyrender.com/uploads/2026/10/211-documents-comparer.png)

**Print** prints only the text. Each reading and each comparison has its own address: copy it to show it to a member of the site.

## Read the next edition

When a new text is waiting for the site to be published, the **Next edition** card appears at the top of the history, with the **Not online yet** badge. It shows the number of the edition that the publication will create, the lines that change, the person who edited the document and the date. If the text stays the same, it says so.

![The Next edition card: edition 6 with two lines added and one removed, edited by Claire Roussel on October 4, 2026, the Not live yet badge, the View comparison button and the Open in the editor link.](https://static.lovelyrender.com/uploads/2026/10/930-doc-contenus2-legal-prochaine.png)

**See the comparison** compares the new text with the edition in force. **Open in the editor** opens the document so you can correct it before publishing.

## Find the text a person read

Each request received by a form that links a document keeps the edition in force at the time of sending.

1. Open the **Forms** screen, then the requests of the form.
2. In the **Legal documents** column of the request, click the document and its edition, for example “Privacy policy (edition 2)”.
3. The history of the document opens on that text, as the person read it. Click **Print** if needed.

## Find an acceptance

On the history of a document that visitors accepted, the **Find an acceptance** card searches for a person’s acceptances.

1. In the **Email or phone** field, enter the person’s email address or phone number.
2. Click **Search**. Each acceptance appears with its date, its edition, its form and its page. The edition link opens its text.

![The Find an acceptance card on the rules of a contest: the address julie.morel@exemple.fr entered, then the line of her acceptance of edition 1 on September 14, with the form and the page.](https://static.lovelyrender.com/uploads/2026/10/212-documents-acceptation.png)

Proofs are kept for 10 years. The search never reads the stored addresses: it compares a fingerprint of what you type with the one kept with each proof. With no result, the card shows **No acceptance of this document for this email or phone.**

## Take your editions with you

The archive of your site contains a `legal` folder. It gathers every text of your legal documents that went live, its dates and the proofs of acceptance. [Take your site with you](https://lovelyrender.com/documentation/export-your-site/) describes the archive.

**Note:** Editions are kept in Production. If Production does not respond, the screen shows **Production is not responding. The document history will appear as soon as it responds again.** and nothing else.

## See also

- [Write a legal document](https://lovelyrender.com/documentation/write-legal-document/)
- [Show the cookie table](https://lovelyrender.com/documentation/cookie-table/)
- [Read requests and where they come from](https://lovelyrender.com/documentation/read-requests/)
- [Restore a version of the site](https://lovelyrender.com/documentation/restore-site-version/)