9

In Word 1997 to 2007, there was a feature that saved document versions. Word 2010 does not have this feature. Did Word 2013 restore it?

1
  • 2
    Actually Word 2010 did just in the form of a revision history
    – Ramhound
    Oct 9, 2013 at 23:28

4 Answers 4

9

File → Info → Versions → Manage Versions is where it's at in 2010. I don't have 2013, but I have to imagine it'd be the same.

7
  • 2
    It's right where this answer says it is. Oct 9, 2013 at 23:34
  • 2
    Right. I know how to access earlier versions of an open document, which is what you are describing. I am referring to the feature in Word 1997 to 2007 that saved a version of the document every time you opened it. Without this feature, I have to create a new document to save if I want to track the changes I make and keep the document whole. I am not talking about the Track feature. I am a writer. It is much easier for me to edit and rewrite freely knowing that the document I started with still exists in case I need to return to the earlier version.
    – KathCK
    Oct 13, 2013 at 4:23
  • 2
    @KathCK ah, then no, it's not available after 2007, in fact it was removed in some of 2007. You'll need another system like sharepoint to do true document version saving. Or you'll have to save each version with a date at the end. Oct 13, 2013 at 12:52
  • 1
    KathCK, if you can, you could also use Google Drive, which gives you a history of snapshots of the documents. Not sure how far back in goes, but unless you need long-term archiving, that should work fine. If you need long-term archiving, you should probably consider more stable softwares such as LaTeX or plain text files, and use a proper versioning control system; with the right graphic interface, Git is pretty easy to use if you are solo-authoring.
    – Peutch
    Sep 5, 2014 at 11:32
  • @Peutch you might consider posting that suggestion as an answer, describing how to use google drive / dropbox / etc as comments often get deleted. Sep 5, 2014 at 11:37
3

Versioning is available for all documents stored in OneDrive. In fact, it works just as it used to in Word. You see the document stack with the latest version on the top, but you can restore an earlier version, which moves the restored version to the top of the stack.

If you don't have problems with storing documents online, simply use OneDrive... or use OneDrive selectively as part of your content creation process. Plus, it preserves versions for Excel and PowerPoint.

2
  • While I admit this raises a good point. There are better solutions then putting documents into the cloud.
    – Ramhound
    Feb 11, 2015 at 16:33
  • it'll be better if you include some links or images regarding that feature
    – phuclv
    Jul 12, 2018 at 16:20
3

You're probably looking for the Always create a backup copy feature in Word Options > Advanced

Always create a backup

It'll create a backup file every time you save.


However Windows already had support for previous versions, no need for office itself to have version control. From Windows 8 onward the feature has been replaced with File History

Still you do need to set up that first before it backs up your file

If you're using OneDrive then you can also use its history feature

OneDrive history

0
-2

As noted, Windows has support for previous versions of files. From the look of the posted screenshot, that was taken from XP or Win7?

I've only tried this on Windows 10, but if you want to version control files without storing them on the cloud (and requiring a network connection, which would be iffy in the middle of an ocean on a life raft, for example), the Win10 File History feature should work for this task. If you're running Office on Mac, Time Machine should do that for you. I think on both platforms, you can adjust the frequency of the versioning to as often as every hour. And the file system type should not be an issue. The versions would then store incrementally (Time Machine does this, not quite sure how compact File History is as I've only been using it for several months).

This, rather than application or file specific version control, is more than what this question asks, but should address the need with a more comprehensive backup alternative. Office would still save the auto-recover version of a file by default, so one would then have regular time-stamped (e.g., hourly) versions of the file in addition to the last auto-recover save from Office.

2
  • 1
    Your talking about something else entirely and is not applicable to the author's question. In any event this point was already brought up 3 years ago by Lưu Vĩnh Phúc. In any event Raystafarian's answer, is not only complete, but exactly what the author was looking for given the information provided.
    – Ramhound
    Apr 13, 2016 at 15:51
  • I disagree. I think it is very applicable because it directly addresses version control for non-Cloud versioning in Office 2013 on a Windows machine. Lưu Vĩnh Phúc's answer isn't quite current. The answer provided by Rastafarian is partly useful, but doesn't directly address the need, which I'm reading as versioning along the lines of how Google Docs has done versioning. Office 2013, as far as I can tell, only provides one autosaved file. The only way to maintain a continual history is through auto backups or file history saves, which at most occur every 1 hour in Windows 10.
    – eug-
    Apr 22, 2016 at 4:26

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .