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Writng-Keeping versions straight
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Posted by jamesofford
Jul 8, 2011 at 01:33 PM
Greetings Folks:
This isn’t a post about new software, nor is it even about outliners or PIMs. I am not even suffering a case of CRIMP. But I do have a question. Does anyone have a good system for keeping different versions of a manuscript sorted out? I just finished writing a review article for a journal. As I was writing, I kept things organized the way I normally do, which is to say not very systematically. Versions were named Document_1.doc, and as time went on, things devolved to Document _3_revisions.doc. Then various versions of final: Document_4_final.doc, Document_4_final2.doc etc. In the end, I had an unholy mess after I added references.
This raised a question for me-before I start my next writing project, what is the best way to keep track of versions? I don’t like to overwrite earlier versions because I might go back and pull something out that I deleted in a later version.
Do any of you have any suggestions as to naming conventions, etc to help this process? Is there such a thing as version control software for writing?
I thank you for any insights you can give.
Jim
Posted by Hugh
Jul 8, 2011 at 02:06 PM
I start each file name with a text-expanded today?s date, triggered by a shortcut ? I use ?td?. The date is set up to be in reversed form e.g. 2011-07-08. That makes it generally possible to see at a glance how the trail of versions runs. To make it more fine-grained, you can add a text expansion for the time too. Of course you could always sort on Created Date and/or Modified Date instead. But whatever the system you always have to be disciplined about the generic name of the document and keep it consistent. When you start to vary that (usually by accident or memory failure), things start to go awry.
Posted by Hugh
Jul 8, 2011 at 02:10 PM
When I was on the Windows platform, I used this: http://www.ajcsoft.com/active-backup.htm.
Posted by Gary Carson
Jul 8, 2011 at 03:19 PM
I’ve had a lot of trouble with this myself and have come up with some possible solutions.
One method you can use to avoid this proliferation of files is to just maintain two files per project: a WORKING file and an ARCHIVE file. You call them TITLE WORKING and TITLE ARCHIVE.
All your early drafts go into the ARCHIVE file. The WORKING file has the latest version.
If you start another rewrite, just copy the contents of the WORKING file into the top of the ARCHIVE file and you’ve got a backup.
Using two monitors works great with this system. You put the ARCHIVE file up on one monitor and the WORKING file up on the other. One thing you can do if you’re going to do a major rewrite is copy your latest version from the working file to the archive file for reference and then delete everything in the working file so you can start with a clean document.
Eventually, your WORKING file will become your final draft and you’ll have an ARCHIVE file with copies of all your previous drafts with the latest draft at the beginning of the document.
I’m experimenting with another system where you keep ALL your drafts in one file. Basically, you write a rough draft, then go through it, correcting minor errors and typing new versions of paragraphs and so on immediately following the original versions WITHOUT DELETING THE ORIGINAL. So you might end up with three or four versions of the same paragraph, one after another, in the same file. The trick is to not delete anything except for the minor stuff where you’re just fixing a word or a sentence here and there. Then, when you’re finished, you go back through the file and delete all the old stuff.
This should work pretty well if you can tolerate working in a messy file like that. Track changes might work for this as well. I’m still experimenting with it myself.
Posted by Tom S.
Jul 8, 2011 at 05:04 PM
Jim wrote:
> Does
>anyone have a good system for keeping different versions of a manuscript sorted out?
Hi, Jim.
My system isn’t good nor is it significantly different from what’s been mentioned. However, if you are using a Mac, Apple has supposedly integrated a solution into the new version of the OS due out on next week. I’ll be very interested to see what it offers:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/auto-save.html
There was also a demonstration during the recent keynote address at WWDC. It looked pretty slick.
Tom S.