News and Announcements

Introducing Auto Save for the KB

Posted: 2024-01-11 17:15:27   Expiration: 2024-02-11 16:50:27

Disclaimer: This news item was originally posted on 2024-01-11 17:15:27. Its content may no longer be timely or accurate.

The KB team is very excited to announce the addition of auto save to the KB document editor! This is a feature that you all have been asking for, and it is now here and ready to use. Please read on for more details.

How does it work?

When you are editing an existing document and begin making changes, the KB will starting auto saving your work once every minute. The auto save timestamp will appear to the right of the “Save Changes” button (below the Body field).

For new documents, we have added messaging to the same area that will alert you to the amount of time that has passed since you started editing. This will prompt you to save the document manually first, at which point, auto save will start running.

Additionally, when you preview a new document, a temporary version of your document will be captured remotely. If you lose your work (i.e. you leave the new doc screen without ever saving), you can contact the KB team to find out if we can restore your unsaved new document.

What is saved? 

All fields and settings on the document edit screen are saved, with two minor exceptions:

  • Auto save will not be able to handle images that have been added via drag-and-drop into the Body field. The process needed to convert these images into files for long-term storage can only be run when a document is saved manually.

  • The “Status” setting will not be saved. Auto save will only ever save to the “In Progress” version of your document, so you won’t accidentally publish partial changes if “Active” was selected when auto save runs.

How can I tell if I’m viewing an auto saved vs manually saved version of a document?

Auto saves will be noted in the “Comments and Events” log for a document. For a single editing session, this will create a single entry with the time stamp updating with each auto save.

Significant changes to document text fields (equaling 250 characters or 25% of the document content) will create a new revision in the document’s Revision History. This will also create a permanent entry in the “Comments and Events” log.

Questions or feedback?

If you have any questions, or if you experience any issues with auto save, please reach out to us at kb-team@doit.wisc.edu.

-- KB User\'s Guide: Leah Scheide