Draft Trail — Writing History for Google Docs

Your students' writing never leaves your computer. See how a Google Doc was written: time, sittings, pastes and a replay.

Your students' writing never leaves your computer. Draft Trail reads the edit history straight from Google Docs — the same history you can see in Version history — and analyzes it on your computer. Nothing is sent to us or to anyone else. No account, no servers, no tracking. Draft Trail shows teachers how a student's Google Doc was written, using the Doc's own revision history. Open a student's Doc, click "Writing history", and you get a plain-language summary: how long the student spent writing, over how many sittings, how many words the final draft has, and any large pastes. You can watch a replay of the writing, jump straight to the moment of a paste, and open a printable report to save or print. WHO IT IS FOR Teachers who review student writing in Google Docs, including in the Google Classroom grading view. It helps you start a conversation about a student's writing process; it does not grade or judge anything. HOW TO USE IT 1. Open a student's Google Doc (from Google Classroom, Drive, or the Classroom grading view). 2. Click "Writing history" at the bottom right of the document. The summary loads right away. 3. Click a large paste to watch that moment in the replay, or click "Printable report" for a record you can save or print. WHAT YOU SEE - A one-sentence summary, for example "Written over 3 sittings (2 h 10 min), mostly typed. 1 large paste from outside." - Three key facts: time writing, sittings and words. - "Things worth a look": large pastes from outside the document, text arriving in large blocks, very little deleting, and possible voice typing. - A list of large pastes. Click one to open the replay paused at that moment. - A replay of the whole document, with typed, pasted and deleted text marked. - A printable report with every number explained in plain language. INDICATORS, NOT PROOF The checks are prompts for a conversation, not evidence of cheating. A paste can be a quote, notes, or the student's own writing from another document. Always watch the replay and talk with the student before drawing conclusions. PRIVACY - Your students' writing never leaves your computer. Draft Trail reads the Doc's revision history from Google Docs using your own signed-in Google session, and analyzes it in your browser. - Its only connection is to Google Docs (docs.google.com), and only after you click "Writing history" (or "Refresh") on that Doc. - Nothing is sent to the developer or to anyone else. There are no Draft Trail servers, no accounts, no analytics, no ads and no tracking. - Saved history stays in the extension's private storage on your computer and is deleted automatically 30 days after you last loaded it. You can clear it at any time with "Clear saved history". Removing the extension removes all of it. - Permissions: storage and unlimitedStorage (both only for saving history on your computer). Chrome will say it can "read and change your data on docs.google.com"; that is needed to add the Writing history button and read the Doc's history, and it runs on no other site. - Don't take our word for it: the privacy policy explains how to check this yourself in Chrome DevTools. REQUIREMENTS - Google Chrome version 130 or newer. - You need edit access to the Google Doc (this is Google's rule for viewing version history). In Google Classroom, teachers have edit access to student work. - Works with Google Docs text, including documents with several tabs. Images and formatting are not replayed. Google Slides and Sheets are not supported. Draft Trail relies on how Google Docs stores version history, which Google may change. Draft Trail is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. Google Docs and Google Classroom are trademarks of Google LLC.