---
title: "Saving, exporting and publishing"
description: "Understand which action keeps your working document, makes a delivery file or publishes to LottieFiles."
canonical: "https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/concepts/saving-exporting-and-publishing/"
last_updated: 2026-10-26
---

# Saving, exporting and publishing

Understand which action keeps your working document, makes a delivery file or publishes to LottieFiles.

## A working document is your editable source

`w` saves the document on this computer as a `.ctd`, Creator Terminal's own file: what you
made, with its images, fonts and sounds in it. This includes a working copy opened from
LottieFiles; you can keep editing it offline.

A file of another kind that you open (a Lottie, a `.lottie`, an SVG, Frolic's `.vd`, Rive's
`.riv`) becomes a document saved beside it as `name.ctd`, never over it. A Lottie or `.lottie` it came from
is where `⌘E` exports first: after editing `card.json`, `w` saves `card.ctd` and `⌘E` writes
`card.json` again.

Click the save state below the document's name to see its local path and, for a linked copy,
the workspace version it came from. **Make a local copy (.ctd)…** opens an independent copy
with its notes and no workspace link.

## An export is a delivery

**↓ export** makes a file for a player, a browser, a video editor or another destination.
It uses the format's limits and your **Text**, **Background**, **Resolution** and **Range**
choices where available. A glyph-only delivery does not carry every letter you might type
later. A rendered video carries pictures rather than editable layers.

Choosing a format chip prepares the export. **Export file** writes it. The palette's
**Export as…** commands write immediately. `⌘E` repeats the last local export to its previous
path; before the first export it opens the panel.

## Publication is an explicit upload

Choosing **LottieFiles** changes the destination. **Upload new asset…** asks for a name and
place. **Upload new version** sends another version to the displayed linked asset.
Neither action saves your working source. Saving the source does not publish it.

If someone published a newer version, the upload stops. **Upload over vN** adds yours on top
and keeps theirs in version history. You can instead publish a separate asset.
That history contains exports, not automatic backups of your local source and notes.

## Live Creator sync is a different connection

`creator-tui open DOCUMENT_ID` opens a live Creator document. Matching timing and easing edits
sync back as you work; value edits stay local. Opening an asset through the LottieFiles
browser gives you the working-copy and explicit-publication workflow above.

See [Creator sync](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/creator-sync.md), [Export](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/export.md) and [LottieFiles](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/lottiefiles.md).