Forum Posts Feed
Writng-Keeping versions straight
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Gary Carson
Jul 8, 2011 at 06:46 PM
I wasn’t aware of this until just now, but Word has a version control feature which could be very useful in combination with Track Changes. The version control lets you save and revert to various versions of the document. These versions are apparently all kept in the same document, so you wouldn’t have multiple files all over the place.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jul 8, 2011 at 07:02 PM
I haven’t used it, but Edwin’s Writing Outliner purports to have a revision control function. You might give it a try. See here:
http://writingoutliner.com/software-features/project-revision-control.php
Steve
Posted by Cassius
Jul 8, 2011 at 09:46 PM
Jim,
The retention of earlier versions is vital for projects that are important. It is also vital that when one is revising the draft, one revises the CORRECT version. I can recall that on one project, a contractor made revisions to a document that was three versions back, losing all the revisions of the more recent versions. Luckily, I caught it and we had kept copies of all versions.
Before I retired, on important documents, I always added a number to the end of the document’s title. For example, Title001, Title002, etc. It is also useful to include a time stamp at the beginning of each version to help reduce the chances of revising the wrong version , as I just described.
-cassius
———————
Jim wrote:
>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 Ken
Jul 8, 2011 at 10:43 PM
Jim wrote:
> 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.
Jim,
The mess that you describe does not seem that unholy. Perhaps you could take a few moments and clean up the naming structure, but otherwise it seems reasonable. I like to follow the software convention of numbering versions, but the most that I would go is one place right of the decimal, and usually I do not even go that far. Now, if you are working with another person, then all bets are off. Why not KISS?
—Ken
Posted by JBfromBrainStormWFO
Jul 8, 2011 at 10:54 PM
In my experience, you need to HAVE version control, but you don’t want to actually USE it. That’s a last resort; it’s very opaque and clumsy.
Wikis and wordpress blogs both have version control, as well as auto datestamping, categories and tags.
I use a unique workflow for my writing. For me it has solved the whole problem of worrying about conflicting versions… whether from modifying the wrong version of a file, or from just generating new thoughts that must be somehow integrated.
It’s part of an overall system which I describe in this rough draft here: http://brainstormsw.com/outliner/lkjlkj-2-3-2-2/
BrainStormWFO doesn’t play much role in my longform writing, except to manage tasks associated with it, or if I need to exceed the limits of my working or long-term memory.
Basically, it involves 3 tiers:
3. Brain-dumps to a T3 blog
2. Focused blog posts to a T2 blog, organized by category
1. An integrated wiki
Separating your writing into tiers according to how finished and polished it is helps tremendously to remove a lot of the early conflicts and friction involved when you’re first brainstorming about a topic, and also later when you’re adding new material to a topic that already has finished writing.
I also have a detailed procedure for reconciling conflicts while writing the final version in the wiki, which is described in the post I linked to.
Just skip down to the T3 section: http://brainstormsw.com/outliner/lkjlkj-2-3-2-2/