Speaker 1: What is document version control? Why is it required and how do you set it up? In this video, we're going to dive to that and more. My name's Josh and I have over 10 years of experience in technical writing. I'm also the founder of Technical Writer HQ. In this video is for document professionals who want to learn about a very important component of document management, which is that of document version control. But before we dive into all that, take a moment to subscribe to our channel for more documentation content. And if you're looking to get into technical writing, you also get a lot of information on how to do just that. And now let's go ahead and get started. So let's say you finally finished that all day report you've been working on, only discovered that the document you were working on wasn't the most recent version. At best, you're irritated. At worst, you've missed a deadline and jeopardized a company's reputation. How do you avoid such scenarios? Well, through document version control. Document version control or documentation revision control is an essential part of document management. A document version control system manages different document drafts and tracks the most current version. Now let's take a look at a few examples. The first example is the book "'Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." Notice the different copyright dates and edition date of the book. The next example is the company's Flux user manual. Check out all the different copyright versions on the bottom of the cover page. Now let's take a look at my favorite example, which is Figma, the design collaboration product often used by UX writers, which keeps track of changes that you've made to your files with version history. You can explore a timeline of events dating back to the file's creation, including the ability to view a version, to pan around and see a snapshot in time. You can restore previous versions to edit layers and export assets of their product, and duplicate versions to create development-ready files for handoff. You can also share a link to a specific version with other editors and create versions to make it easier to view and access a set of changes. You can also add names and descriptions to autosaved versions. Figma saves your work by adding checkpoints to the file's version history. And Figma records a new checkpoint after 30 minutes of inactivity in the file. If more than one person is editing a file, both contributors will need to be inactive for 30 minutes for Figma to create a version. And here's a specific example of how someone would use this with Figma. Yuki started editing his file at nine o'clock a.m. He takes a short break at 11 a.m. for 15 minutes before resuming work. And at 1 p.m., he heads off for an hour, let's say, to grab some lunch. Figma will save everything he worked on from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. as one version. Later that afternoon, Yuki and Jenny work together in the file from 2 p.m. And Yuki leaves at 4 p.m. for a meeting, but Jenny continues, say, working on it until 6 p.m. Figma actually records everything Yuki and Jenny worked on between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. as one version. And as Jenny made more changes during that session, Figma lists her as a main contributor. Document versioning helps contributors know they're working on the latest draft. This is particularly important when writing or creating complex documents like contracts or agreements. And version control prevents people from introducing mistakes by accidentally using an old draft or overriding changes that someone else made. Plus, it helps managers track document status and maintain an audit trail. Document version control helps ensure that all versions and drafts of a document are accurately recorded and managed across team members and devices. This leads to many benefits, including document history. Document version control allows you to easily access a previous version of your documents and projects, which can help guard important information in the case of computer crashes, mistakes, or data loss. It also allows you to see who edited particular documents and when, and which can help your team track and manage file changes. And we have efficiency. Effective document version control allows multiple people to work simultaneously on a document or a project without a document going out of date or edits interfering with another person's work. Team members can also access a working copy for document revision across locations and devices. Version control prevents team members from working on out-of-date or multiple versions while decreasing delays that would come with only one person working on a document at a time. And then we have regulatory compliance. Without access to up-to-date documents, professionals often struggle remaining to comply with requirements of regulatory bodies. For highly regulated industries like financial and pharmaceutical, this is of the utmost importance. Document version control resolves this concern by helping team members organize important compliance-related information and letting them easily access relevant documentation. And it saves time. Without document control, it's difficult to search for up-to-date documents. In fact, on average, engineers and operations teams spend roughly two hours a day searching for accurate and up-to-date information. With document version control, all users have access to up-to-date and accurate information, which ultimately helps maximize productivity, save time, increase safety, and ensure data integrity. You could save every document draft as a separate file to keep track of changes, but saving each file manually is both time-consuming and mistake-prone. It's better to use a software system that automates your version control. So how the system works depends on your software choice, but most offer some version control functions. An electronic document management system, or EDMS, is a set of software tools that tracks and stores your electronic documents. And no matter the file formats or file types, from scans of paper documents to PDF files or Microsoft Office spreadsheets and business documents, document management solutions help you keep tabs on all your important work. Besides being a cost-effective method of document control and indexing, an EDMS offers another level of accountability. Authentication and security through audit trails and archiving features. Once you upload and save a file in the EDMS, there's a digital record of who uploaded the document, and you can sort by name, date modified, or file size. The best document management software also comes with a built-in advanced search feature to help you locate what you need when you need it. And this is a quick and ultimately easy way to improve your business processes. And if your current collaboration tools are lacking, document management tools will reduce your stress. Some tools you may wanna check out include Almanac, MADCAP, and Confluence. These all help you manage your documentation. They allow multiple people to work together on an electronic document and share files. Another benefit is the access control it provides. So only the users you choose can access documents. While every EDMS has unique benefits, most document management systems have similar attributes. Version control, users can retrieve previous editions of documents, and that's of course useful when a document is frequently updated. And we have metadata, defined as data about data. It's created for each document, uploaded into the system in the form of tags. This generally includes information like title, upload date, and a short description of the document itself. Then indexing, this assists finding of documents based on content, identifiers, and metadata. And next we have security. This protects confidential and sensitive information through encryption and authentication. Administrators can control which users are able to access documents. And next we have workflow automation. You can set up automated workflows for all types of documents to minimize delays and ramp up productivity. It also has collaboration tools. Your software that you choose should allow users to work on electronic documents together with all changes automatically monitored and recorded by the system, similar to how we were talking about Figma earlier in this video. And it must have mobile access. In the age of remote work, the ability to access documents on mobile devices is essential. EDMSs support mobile integration and allow your team members to work remotely and on the move. Because no matter where you are, you might be creating more documentation. And there you have it. We went over everything from what is document version control, why is it required, and how to set it up. Thank you for watching the video and sticking with us to the end. And again, my name is Josh. I'm the founder of Technical Writer HQ. And if you enjoyed this video and you feel like you got a lot out of it, make sure to like the video, subscribe to our channel for more information on technical documentation. And I'll go ahead and see you in some of our following videos to help level up your skills and become a better technical documentation specialist. Cheers.