Does Microsoft Office 2010 have version control?

Question

Does Microsoft Office 2010 have version control? In other words, does it automatically save old versions of files?

Answer 1

No. It has AutoRecover and Track Changes but not a versioning history.

You may be interested in using P4OFC if you need version control on Office documents.

Perforce Plug-in for Microsoft Office

P4OFC, the Perforce Plug-in for Microsoft Office, allows Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Project files to be easily stored and managed in Perforce. With P4OFC, users don't have to leave a familiar environment to bring their documents under Perforce control.

Support for Basic SCM Tasks

P4OFC helps everyday users to:

• Check files in and out of Perforce from within Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Project
• Determine which version of a document is checked out and who else is working on it
• Access complete document revision history
• Share and lock documents through Perforce
• Link change requests with document changes

Implement Document Management Quickly and Easily

P4OFC is easy to install and adds a "Perforce" menu to Microsoft Office applications. Once installed, the plug-in automatically determines which documents are under Perforce control.

Quickly Compare Two Versions of the Same Word Document

P4OFC can compare any two revisions of the same Word document and quickly show changes, using Microsoft Word's Track Changes feature.

A Perforce repository is free for two users.

Answer 2

A Word file can contain multiple versions. Use menu File | Info | Manage Versions.

Otherwise, it is only possible using some external software (version control or SharePoint).

Answer 3

Word used to have built=in Version Control. But that was removed in Word 2007:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/what-happened-to-versioning-HA010219332.aspx

Now, they have 3 related features:

1. Track Changes. This allows you to see any changes that have been made to a document and either approve or reject the changes.

2. Manage Versions. This allows you to recover autosaved versions of a file.

3. Document Library. If you save your documents on a Sharepoint server, you can view earlier versions.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/compare-versions-of-a-word-document-in-a-document-library-HA010202675.aspx?CTT=1

Answer 4

Whilst the above answers are correct in general (Office 2010 does not support version control), there is one exception: Access 2010 has an option which you can enable for it ("Source Control" is a menu choice in the Options menu under the Ribbon settings section).

The information returned by a search of the internet is pretty limited, so I don't think it can have received a lot of attention from Access users in general.

The details on Microsoft's website are here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=6840

Answer 5

We (disclaimer, I'm the founder) built a version control system for Excel (think GitHub for spreadsheets). Have a look: https://spreadgit.com