When you share documents for review and approval, your versions multiply like bunnies. And without a standardized process for document version control, you can quickly find yourself with three files like this:
Which one is the latest? Which ones are out of date? It’s anyone’s guess. But by introducing some simple version control best practices or setting your team up with document approval software, you can wave goodbye to this issue – and all the wasted time that comes with it!
In this article, we’ll cover four document version control best practices that you can start using straight away. But before we get to that, let’s look at what we mean by document version control.
View documents side by side and auto-highlight changes with Filestage.
Document version control resolves all your troubles by keeping all the files and versions organized. More importantly, effective file versioning takes the thought out of naming documents and makes sure everyone knows which one is the final version.
Here are a few ways document version control helps you save time and money:
So let’s get into it with our four document version control best practices – including handy examples to help you get the most out of them.
Or, if you’d like to learn about document versioning for design files, check out our guide to design version control.
If you’re creating content for a client, you’ll probably have a fixed number of review rounds in your contract to avoid overservicing them. But this can be a problem with live and collaborative documents.
This can create a situation where you feel like you’re constantly juggling feedback and replying to reviewers. But on paper, it’s all just one big review round.
Let’s look at what you can do about it.
Here are a few steps you can take to avoid blurred lines between each version of your document:
Filestage lets you set due dates for each document review, triggering automated email and chat reminders as the deadline approaches. You can also switch the review status of your document from “In review” to “Needs changes” at any time, blocking any further feedback until you share the next version.
If you really want to take your document version control system up a notch, you need to look at centralizing feedback from your stakeholders.
Here’s a quick snapshot of what can happen without a centralized feedback process:
And just like that, you’ve gone from one version to three. Now imagine what can happen with more complex approval processes spread across different teams or departments.
Luckily, centralized feedback makes sure you never have to deal with this problem.
View documents side by side and auto-highlight changes with Filestage.
When you ask reviewers for feedback on your document, make it clear where they should share the feedback. That will likely be in one of three places:
If someone ignores you and sends feedback by email or makes a copy, remind them of your original instructions. It may seem harsh, but it’ll help to make centralized and collaborative feedback part of your team’s culture.
Or, there is another way…
Filestage lets you invite people to add comments and collaborate on your documents, all in one place. From one-page Word documents to sprawling whitepaper PDFs, your reviewers can add highlights, strikeouts, and annotations right on top of your document. And when you share a new version, it’ll be shared with your reviewers automatically.
Version control is important for keeping the quality of your documents as high as possible. A strong document version control system also helps you minimize wasted time and money across your company.
Using the right tool for version control will help you significantly save time on managing versions and files in the course of a project. But not every situation calls for the same tool.
Here are three different document control software that can help you with document version control management in different situations:
Filestage is a version control software that helps you organize your files and versions and gather feedback on each of your document versions, all in one tool.
Here’s why you should use Filestage for version control:
View documents side by side and auto-highlight changes with Filestage.
Google Docs is an incredible tool for writing and collaborating on documents. But when it comes to document version control, it can cause a lot of headaches.
If you do, however, decide to use Google Docs for version control, you can do it by going to File > Version history. From there, you can either browse through your version history or name the current version of your document.
This would be a useful feature if more people knew where to find it. But it falls down when it comes to feedback and document reviews because the comments don’t appear when you hop between versions.
You can version control a document in Microsoft Word by clicking on the file name at the top of your window, then click “Version History”. A sidebar will appear on the right with all your different versions.
Click on a version to open it in a separate window as a read-only document. You’ll then have the option to compare or restore that version and any changes that have been made.
This feature makes it easy to spot the differences between several versions of the same document. But since Microsoft Word creates a new version after each edit, you could easily end up with hundreds of versions to search through to find the exact one you want.
I hope this article has given you everything you need to take control of your team’s versioning chaos. There are lots of tips here that you can apply straight away.
But if you’re on the lookout for all-singing, all-dancing feedback and document version control software, give Filestage a try.
Writer and brand strategist at Filestage. Excited by big ideas, lightning-fast collaboration, and Italian food.
Writer and brand strategist at Filestage. Excited by big ideas, lightning-fast collaboration, and Italian food.
