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About this lesson
View version history and restore previous versions of files in Google apps.
Exercise files
The exercises below will open in a new tab. When signed in to your Google account, go to File --> Make a copy to get an editable copy of the file.
Version History SolutionLink Version History
Link
Quick reference
Version History
Version history (previously called 'Revision history') is allows you to see all the changes that have been made to a file and restore previous versions of a file in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings.
When to use
When you want to see what a file used to look like, when different changes were made, what they were, and who made them, or restore previous versions of the file.
Instructions
Open and close revision history
- Click “File”
- Click “Version history”
- Click "See version history"
- To close version history and return to your document, click the back arrow in the top left
Review changes
- The date and time each set of changes were finished is displayed in the “Version history” sidebar
- Click the revisions in the sidebar to see different versions of the file
- Click the arrows in the top bar to see individual changes made to each version
- Uncheck the “Show changes” box to see the version without changes highlighted
- Click the dropdown arrow next to a particular version to see an expanded list of individual changes
Restore previous revision
- Click on the revision you want to restore in the “Version history” sidebar
- Click “Restore this version”
- 00:04 Google Drive can help us keep track of all of the revisions and
- 00:08 changes which we've made within a particular document.
- 00:12 Whether we are collaborating with others or perhaps we would just like to go back
- 00:17 to an earlier version of a document that we are editing.
- 00:20 Drive makes it very easy for us to see what changes have been made
- 00:25 over the course of the history of that document or of that file.
- 00:30 To do so, let’s open up this task list.
- 00:33 Here is a Google Doc Task List, which I have created.
- 00:37 Here you can see it's fairly simple.
- 00:38 It's a list of tasks that I would like to complete in the month of August.
- 00:44 But perhaps I'd like to go back and see the history of this document,
- 00:48 what changes have I made over time?
- 00:51 There's two ways in which you can access the revision history.
- 00:55 The first would be by selecting File > See revision history.
- 01:01 But there's another method.
- 01:02 At the top of the screen,
- 01:04 you will see a link showing you when the last edit was made.
- 01:09 Here we see a link that says that the last edit was 7 minutes ago.
- 01:13 I can click this link directly and that, too, will open up the revision history.
- 01:20 So here we see the latest version of the document.
- 01:23 It's really the exact same thing we saw on the previous screen.
- 01:28 But over on the right, we can toggle through and
- 01:32 select other versions of this document.
- 01:35 We can see the lifespan of this particular file.
- 01:40 In some cases you may need to expand a certain timeframe,
- 01:44 especially if a number of changes were made within the very same period.
- 01:50 So now, I can go back and see what changes have been made to this document over time.
- 01:57 The time stamp here indicates when those changes were made.
- 02:02 The last time that this document was closed with those changes.
- 02:07 So as I toggle through and select other versions of the document,
- 02:12 you will also notice that some things are highlighted within it.
- 02:16 Here you can see that bullet point 4 is highlighted.
- 02:19 This is indicating that that is what was changed at this time.
- 02:24 When I first opened up this document on July 20th at 10:50 AM,
- 02:29 I only had three bullet points, and I added a fourth one there.
- 02:34 Just like when I opened up the most current version of the document,
- 02:39 you can see I actually added an additional bullet point here at number 2.
- 02:44 Now, as you're reviewing the document,
- 02:47 you may not wish to see the highlighted changes.
- 02:50 To do so, you can go to the bottom of your screen and uncheck the,
- 02:54 Show changes, checkbox.
- 02:57 Now, as you toggle through the different versions,
- 03:01 you will no longer see those highlighted areas.
- 03:04 I'm just gonna check this one more time.
- 03:07 And let's say that this is the actual task list that I would like to be seeing or
- 03:11 I would like to use right now.
- 03:14 By going to the top of the screen, I can select the restore this revision button.
- 03:20 And now, that will become my current version of this document.
- 03:25 So you can always go back and restore an older version of that particular document.
- 03:32 Now, what happens to the more current versions?
- 03:35 What happens to the latest version?
- 03:37 Well, they do not go away.
- 03:39 They will remain stored, they will remain save, so
- 03:42 if you do wish to revert back, you can always do so.
- 03:46 Once you've made the changes that you would like,
- 03:48 once you've possibly restored to another version, simply select the back button and
- 03:54 you will be brought back to the document itself.
- 03:57 And that's how you can review your revision history within Google Drive.
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