KB Author Training - Version History

Overview

One of the KB's most powerful features is Version History, which allows you to view and restore previous versions of a document's content.

A new version is created each time you click Save Change. In addition, the KB's auto-save feature creates a new version when it detects that at least 20% of the document content has changed.

Each version is stored as a separate snapshot of the document's content in the KB database. Version History tracks content changes only and does not track changes to document settings. The following content fields are included in Version History:

• Title
• Keywords
• Summary
• Body
• See Also

These versions will date all the way back to when you first created your document. You can use this to view and restore previous versions of your document.

Accessing the Version History

You can view a document's version history from either the document review screen or the document edit screen:

• Document review screen: Open the More menu and select Version history....

• Document edit screen: Open the Options menu and select Version history....

You will be taken to a table that lists all of your document's versions (i.e. each point at which changes to your document were saved):

The column headings display the following information about each version:

• Version is a number assigned to a set of changes based on the order in which they were saved. The higher the number, the more recent the revision.
• Published will contain a "Yes" if that specific version was previously published (compared to versions that were only saved as drafts).
• Document Title is the title of the document as it existed during the version in question.
• Last Updated By is the document author who made the changes saved in the version.
• Last Saved At is the date and time changes were saved in the version.
• Age is how old the version is relative to today's date.
• The Compare checkbox allows you to select the versions you wish to compare.

To view a version you can either:

• Click on the Document Title of the version you wish to view.
• Select one or more Compare checkboxes, and click Compare Selected to display multiple versions at once.

At the bottom of each version you will see a button labeled Restore with this version. Only click this button if you wish to have that version of the document available to you in the document editor for publishing. Please note that this will only affect the draft version of the document; you will need to edit and republish the document to have the restored version appear to your end users.

If you just want to leave the version without restoring it, you can click Return to version list.

Draft vs Published Comparison

The Draft vs published comparison gives you a side-by-side look at the differences between your current document draft and the version that is published for your end users. It also displays differences in the HTML code underlying each version of the document. To use this feature:

• Document review screen: Open the More menu and select Draft vs published....

• Document edit screen: Open the Options menu and select Draft vs published....

A window displaying your draft document and the corresponding published document will open. Below the documents themselves, a table displays the changes to the underlying HTML. You can close out of the comparison window and return to the document editor at any time.