Saving Different Versions of a Document

If you want to keep track of multiple versions of the same document as you're working on it, you might want to store them all in one place under the same filename instead of saving them as separate documents. Word's versioning feature lets you save "snapshots" of a document at its various stages of development so that you can refer back to previous versions if need be. For each version, Word stores information about who created it, when it was created, and a brief description of it.

To save a version of a document, follow these steps:

1. Open the document and revise it if desired to create the version that you want to save.

2. Choose File, Save As .

3. Click the Tools button at the top of the Save As dialog box, and click Save Version .

4. In the Save Version dialog box, type a brief comment about the version that's onscreen (see Figure 18.16).

   Figure 18.16. Describe the version of the document you're saving in the Save Version dialog box.

   

5. Click OK .

You can repeat these steps to continue saving "snapshots" of the document during your editing process.

When you want to open the most recent version of the document, just open it as you would open any other file. If you want to open a previous version, first open the document, and then choose File, Versions to display the Versions dialog box (see Figure 18.17). This dialog box lists any versions of the document that you have saved with the versioning feature. Select the one that you want to review, and click the Open button.

Figure 18.17. Choose the version you want to open in the Versions dialog box.

Word arranges the current version in a Word window across the top half of your screen and the previous version in a separate Word window beneath it. This enables you to review both versions at the same time. If you decide to modify a previous version, you are required to save the modified version as a separate file so that the record of versions in the original file isn't altered .