This post is third in a series covering how to take advantage of SharePoint 2013’s many features, plus handy tips and tricks to improve your collaboration and productivity.
Today’s focus: Version Control
Make sure you always have the latest version of a document without losing what’s been done in the past. With the check in/check out feature, you can avoid conflicts for shared documents that both you and your colleagues are editing. When you upload a document, the file is initially checked out to you and needs to be checked in before others can check out the document. Users will be required to leave a comment about the changes they made once it’s checked in. This feature can also be disabled to allow multiple people to edit a document at the same time and be used with version control.
If tracking is enabled, the revised document can be added as a new version and becomes part of the version history of the file. Make it a business practice to require any changes to be submitted with comments to keep track of the file’s history. This way, you’ll be able to control the changes that were made, either approving edits or rolling the document back to a previous version.
Today’s tip:
In a document library, clicking the Sync button in the top right corner will save all of your team documents to your computer for offline use. That way you’ll have your documents with you, even when you can’t access the Internet.