The Two Ways of Controlling Versions of Documents

There are two different aspects to keeping track of different versions of a document.

• The most common aspect is keeping track of incremental changes in a document so that, if necessary, you can revert back to a previously saved version of the document. This is covered in Document Version Control With Editing and Version Tools on page 406.

• The second aspect has to do with maintaining two or more distinct versions of a document. This is covered in Using Sections to Create Multiple Versions of the Same Document on page 409.

  One document contains all versions, but different parts of the document can be turned on or off, depending on the audience the document is aimed at. For example, a software company could have a marketing document on a certain software product that contains not only generic information about the product, but also information that is specific to three software platforms. Using conditional text, you can print three different versions of the document, each targeted to a specific software platform audience.

  Using another example, you can create a single classroom instruction guide, but print one with instructor notes and one without.

  In this chapter we'll refer to this second aspect of version control as using sections .

• Two additional tools, editing tools and notes, help you add comments to a document with greater and lesser degrees of sophistication respectively. These are covered in Using the Automated Editing Tools on page 419 and Using Notes on page 423.