Version Control

version control ensures that changes to documentation are tracked and managed efficiently by using version control systems (vcs, also called source control systems), teams can collaborate better, easily access a history of changes and be protected against loss of content and yet, so many people don't use it! this page will try to explain that even basic version control is better than nothing using a version control system, you can benefit from collaboration multiple people can work on the same document simultaneously, without overwriting each other's work change tracking version control keeps a clear history of document changes, including who made them and why, which is essential for accountability and auditing reverting to previous versions if any mistakes happen, it's no problem version control allows to revert to an earlier version branching if you need to support multiple versions of the documentation at the same time, a version control system enables you to work on them independently this description best fits a "true" source control system, like git however, the principles stay the same even if you don't work in a developer like environment even storing your documents in a sharepoint library is better than nothing! documents stored only on a local hard drive are a recipe for disaster the type of version control system to use depends on the type of content being managed and the workflows that need support software development version control systems like git or svn are best suited when you are working on text files, such as markdown or html (that said if you have access to a vcs, feel free to store binary files too it's true that vcs are not meant for binary files and you won't be able to view diffs, but the ability to revert to a previous version and the prevention of data loss are worth it ) document management systems such as sharepoint are recommended when working with word documents cloud authoring tools, like google docs, confluence or archbee, have a built in version history system