Subversion with Documents
I decided to give programming-style source control a try for a project with extensive Word and Excel based documents. These documents see many drafts before they are finalized and I’ve never been quite happy with the “Save as” method. However, these are binary files, not the text files typically used with source control. You might think that would make this less efficient or useful, but that’s not true. Subversion and TortoiseSVN makes it a breeze to commit files periodically, so you are not adding much time or effort to your work flow.
With code projects, Subversion/TortoiseSVN makes the change review process extremely efficient. The TortoiseSVN Diff option loads TortoiseMerge with the working copy and the most recently committed revision version of the selected document. All of the changes between the two documents are highlighted. Both documents scroll in sync. You don’t need to search for what has changed, it’s right there for you! However,TortoiseMerge only supports text files. TortoiseDiff displays comparisons of images, but not binary documents. What about binary documents?
You can still view the differences between revisions of Word and Excel documents. When you select the TortoiseSVN Diff option for a Word document, a new unsaved document opens and the differences are displayed via the track changes feature. When you Diff an Excel file, Excel opens with a side-by-side comparision of the two revisions and the changes are identified with a red background. Both are pretty decent solutions for viewing document changes.
I used Subversion and TortoiseSVN just like I would for a code project: trunk/branches/tags structure, regular commits with comments, branching alternate version, etc. So far, I have been quite happy with the results. I plan to continue this for future projects. If you have not using some form of source or version control on your large documents, I highly recommend it.
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The TortoiseSVN Diff option doesn’t support Visio documents. The option is available, yet it opens TortoiseMerge with an error. You can still save older revisions from the log and review manually. There is just no diff ability.