Tracy van der Schyff

#Office365Challenge – Version Histories in SharePoint are one of those features I use to get people to trust SharePoint AND each other. The root cause of every complex site I have come across is people not trusting other people. This leads to complex permissions right down to item level, and complex site structures. Duplicate applications and documents, zero transparency and no reusability are just some of the symptoms.

How can we utilize version history?
If someone edits your document without your permission – you can restore the previous version.
SharePoint tracks exactly who did what when (no tracking inside your document, but metadata changes are tracked)
Messed up your document? Wishing you had this morning’s copy – well…… now you do.
Each version edited and “published” is tracked and saved – this is great for compliance.
SharePoint tracks minor and major versions – so if a group of people has to review and make changes to a Policy, you can track these as minor changes and then publish to a major version when done.
It allows you to view a previous state of a document – without restoring it.

Versioning is not switched on by default. To switch on versioning, go to the Library Tab, Library Settings:

Go to Versioning settings. Under Document Version History you’ll see the following choices:

No versioning is the default setting.
Create Major versions allows you to set it to only create major versions (1,2,3,4 etc.)
Create major and minor (draft) versions allows you to set “interim” versions as explained above (1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.0)
We’ll cover the rest of the settings in another post.

Once you’ve set your version preference, SharePoint will start tracking it for you.
To view the version history of a document, click on the ellipses, then on the second ellipses to open the menu, select version history:

You’ll now see all the versions and have the ability to restore and even delete old versions:

I’m sorry. But for me – THAT IS MIND BLOWING!!

Overview of my challenge: As an absolute lover of all things Microsoft, I’ve decided to undertake the challenge, of writing a blog every single day, for the next 365 days. Crazy, I know. And I’ll try my best, but if I cannot find something good to say about Office 365 and the Tools it includes for 365 days, I’m changing my profession. So let’s write this epic tale of “Around the Office in 365 Days”. My ode to Microsoft Office 365.

Keep in mind that these tips and tricks do not only apply to Office 365 – but where applicable, to the overall Microsoft Office Suite and SharePoint.