The contents of the editor can be cached into several persistent and temporary buffers.

Persistent buffers

The VHV interface can store the contents of the text editor into nine persistent buffers. These buffers can be reloaded into the editor even after closing the web browser and opening it again. Other uses for the buffers would be to save various analyses of a work to allow switching between the results quickly without re-running different filters. In particular if you are editing a complex piece, it is wise to save the current state of the editor occasionally in case of an accidental closing of the VHV webpage.

To save the contents of the editor into a buffer, type a number from 1 to 9, and then the key combination alt-shift-S. This will save the contents of the editor into the specified buffer. For example 5+alt-shift-S will store the editor’s contents into buffer 5.

To load a buffer back into the editor, type the buffer number followed by the key combination alt-shift-R to restore the buffer’s contents to the editor. For example 5+alt-shift-R will restore the fifth buffer to the editor.

Buffer 1 is the default save and load buffer. If you type alt-shift-S without specifying a buffer number, the first one will be used. In other words alt-shift-S is equivalent to 1+alt-shift-S. Likewise alt-shift-R is equivalent to 1+alt-shift-R when restoring the default buffer.

Autosave buffer

A tenth buffer is stored in location 0. This buffer is filled once a minute with the current contents of the editor. It is not normal to save to buffer 0, but it can be useful to recover the recent contents of the editor after a significant problem, such as accidentally moving to a new repertory piece while editing another one, or accidentally closing the VHV webpage. To restore the autosave buffer, type 0+alt-shift-R. This has to be done within one minute after VHV is reloaded before the buffer 0 content will be overwritten with the current contents of the editor.

When restoring a persistent buffer, such as 3+alt-shift-R to load the third buffer, the current contents of the editor will be stored in buffer 0. You then have a minute or less to recover the old contents of the editor if you made a mistake in recalling one of the buffers, but typing 0+alt-shift-R.

Exit buffer

When the VHV webpage is closed, another autosave buffer is used to save the current contents of the editor. When returning to the VHV webpage within an hour, this exit buffer will be restored to the editor. In certain cases, such as loading a repertory file from the URL, the editors contents will be overwritten with the URL’s data content. If you need to recover the exit data, then type 0+alt-shift-R within one minute to restore the last autosave content.

Note that command-z (MacOS), or control-z (Linux, Windows), can also be used to restore previous contents of the editor.

The alt-r command (without the shift key) will reload a repertory file from the source. This is occasionally necessary to flush buffering of the work if it has changed at the source location.