If it is a document you are checking, you can see all the changes taking place (physical changes to the document or metadata). Version history allows you to retrace the history of an item or a document, since the date and time it was first created till present. The file name is a primary key identifier! What are the major benefits of versioning? 1. In other words, if you upload a document to SharePoint and then download it, change the file name and upload back to the document library – version history will start with 1.0 for that new document. For versioning to work, documents need to keep the same file name. The second major requirement applies to documents. See instructions above on how to achieve this. Obviously, versioning needs to be enabled. What are the primary requirements for versioning to work? However, if you want to learn more about minor versions, check out this interesting post by Ellen van Aken. They are very rarely used in SharePoint, so I will only concentrate on major versions in this post. Minor versions allow for more granular version control, they are used for very specific content approval scenarios in SharePoint. You probably noticed in a screenshot above that you can have both minor and major versions. Choose Create major versions radio button (once again, this is already enabled by default in a document library in SharePoint Online).Go to List or Library Settings (depending on whether you are configuring versioning for a list or a document library).Here is what you need to do to enable versioning on any list or library: Same will be required if you are not in SharePoint Online – versioning on any list or library would need to be enabled manually. You have to manually enable versioning in all other web parts. If you are in SharePoint Online, versioning is enabled by default in a document library. That includes the document library, custom list, Announcements, Issue Tracking, Task List, Links, other lists. If you just view an item or a document by clicking on it – the new version is not created, it is only created when you actually change something.Īny out of the box web part that stores content has Versioning capabilities.

Any change is recorded, whether it is a physical change to the document or just a metadata change. Any time you change a document in a document library or edit any list item (in a custom list, calendar, task list, etc.) – a new version is created.

Another word for previous version