Google Version History

Google's Version History (previously known as "revision history") is a very useful feature in Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Draw.

What is "Version History" and how do I use it?

• By clicking File-->Version History, owners and editors of a Google doc can see all previous versions and revisions or choose to add a name to the current version.

• Click on a revision to see who edited which portions of the document. Revisions are color-coded to the name of the revisor.

• If you hover your mouse over a highlighted revision, the name of the revisor appears.

• Click the three dots by a revision to name it for quick, future reference. This is a new feature recently added by Google.

• Click on "Only show named versions" to filter to just those you've named manually.

• Click on a draft and then click "restore this version" to move document back to that draft's point in time, or click "Presentation Draft" to go back to current version and exit version history.

Why would I want to use Version History?

• If students make inappropriate changes to a shared document, you can quickly restore the original or past drafts. By telling students you can see all edits to a document, you can also discourage inappropriate behavior before it happens.
• If you accidentally delete work and close the document, you can still recover it.
• If you want to track your revisions and compare different drafts of a document, you can toggle between them (ex. rough draft, revised draft, final version).

For more information about version history, check out the Control Alt Achieve blog post on this topic.