SharePoint versioning: an overview

SharePoint versioning: an introduction

Microsoft SharePoint is one of the most used web-based collaboration systems in the business environment, with more than 200,000 companies around the world using it every day to optimize the sharing of information between employees.

Its functions are focused on an intranet-based inter-company collaboration experience that allows users to securely share and manage content extensively and offers workflow collaboration capabilities, list databases and other web components to allow business teams to work together.

The many features of the platform make it much easier for people to work together on ad hoc projects and establish standard business processes for sharing information, publishing documents and recording data.

And precisely speaking of these features, we cannot fail to mention some of the most important and useful of all: those related to 'versioning'.

In this article, we will therefore try to go a little deeper into the characteristics of this feature to better understand how it works and what are the advantages it can offer us.

What is versioning?

First of all, let's start with a definition. What is versioning?

Versioning is the practice of keeping track of changes made to a set of data, documents, or software, recording the various versions of a file or project over time. This process allows you to manage and identify the various “versions” of the content, facilitating the retrieval of previous versions, the comparison between versions and the management of changes, especially in collaborative environments.

In computer science and software development, versioning is often implemented through version control systems (Version Control Systems, or VCS). These tools allow you to:

1. Save every change: every change made to the code (or documents) is saved as a new 'version' or 'commit'.
2. Recover previous versions: You can go back to a previous version if a change proves to be incorrect or unwanted.
3. Managing parallel work: several people can work on the same project independently, avoiding conflicts and overlaps.
4. Document and comment on changes: each version may include a description of the changes made, making it easier to understand the development of the project.

Versioning is essential especially in large or collaborative projects, where it is important to maintain a clear and traceable organization of the work done.

SharePoint versioning: main features

Collaborating on documents, co-authoring, and updating lists with other people work much better with version control turned on. People can make mistakes, and version control provides a safety net. With version control active in Lists and Collections, documents can be archived, tracked, and restored to the previous state of the item or document: as it was before a user modified it.

Historically, version control wasn't turned on by default when a list or collection was created. SharePoint Online now enables versioning by default in collections when they are created.

Version control creates a historical record of changes, with the date/time and an indication of the user who made the change, for each file or item in the list. The end user can view, delete, and restore a version if they have the correct permissions in the collection or list.

By default, SharePoint saves a version of a document each time a user clicks the 'Save' button. However, if automatic saving is turned on — as it is by default for documents in your OneDrive or in synchronized collections and Office Online apps — SharePoint will automatically save a version of the document every few minutes.

When the co-authoring feature is enabled in SharePoint, multiple users can work on the same document at the same time. Each user's changes are tracked and saved as a new version. When a user saves changes to a document being co-authored, SharePoint will save a new version of the document that includes all the changes made by all the co-authors.

It's important to note that co-authoring can affect version control in SharePoint. If multiple users are working on the same document at the same time, it can be difficult to keep track of who made what changes and when. SharePoint does its best to track changes and create new versions when necessary, but it's still important that users communicate and coordinate during co-authoring to ensure that changes are tracked and recorded correctly.

Let's now take a closer look at some of the main features and versioning capabilities provided by SharePoint.

Types of versions

Version management in SharePoint is divided into major versions and secondary versions to support collaborative and approval workflows, as well as to facilitate document organization and control. These versions are used to follow the progress of documents, allowing a distinction to be made between versions ready to be published and versions that are still under review.

Major versions

Le major versions (or Major versions) represent published or approved versions of a document, and are numbered with a single integer, such as 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc. Some key points of the major versions are:

• Used for final versions: major versions are generally considered as official versions of the document, ready to be used or distributed to a wider audience.
• Increased visibility: Major versions are visible to all users with access to the document library, unless authorization restrictions apply.
• Change control: the main versions represent points of stability, allowing users to know which is the last approved or released version of a document.
• Manual or automatic creation: depending on your settings, you can request that a major version be created only after a draft is approved or automatically when a new revision is published.

Minor versions

Le secondary versions (or Minor versions), also called drafts, are intermediate or working versions of a document and are numbered with decimals, such as 0.1, 1.1, 1.2, etc. These versions are useful for ongoing modifications or internal revisions. Some features of the minor versions include:

• Used for proofreading and drafting: secondary versions are ideal for situations where a document is still being edited or revised and is not ready to be published.
• Limited visibility: secondary versions are generally visible only to the authors of the document or to users with specific permissions (for example, reviewers or approvers). Other users will only see the most recent major version.
• Proofreading: allows you to work on a document without overwriting or replacing the official version until the changes are complete and approved.
• Continuous update: Every time a user saves a change, a new minor version is created, making it easier to monitor changes during the development process.

Version history in SharePoint

The function of History of versions is a powerful SharePoint tool that allows you to view the list of changes made to a document or a list item. Thanks to the version history, it is possible to keep track of every change, trace back to who made the changes and restore any previous versions. This mechanism is particularly useful for collaborative work teams, where multiple users are working on documents and quick checks or restores are needed.

When versioning is enabled on a document library or SharePoint list, every time a change is saved, SharePoint automatically creates a new version of the document or item. This new version is added to the history, and the details of the change are saved along with the version itself.

Users can then view the version history, which includes:

• Date and time of the change: to know when a certain change was made.
• Author of the change: to see who modified the document or item. This is especially useful in work teams, where each member contributes to changes.
• Comments on versions: when they save a new version, users can enter comments to describe the changes made. This provides useful context for understanding the reasons for the changes.
• Differences between major and minor versions: Version history allows you to distinguish between major (approved and published) and minor (drafts or revisions in progress) versions.
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To view the version history of a document or list item in SharePoint, users must access the menu of the specific document or item and select the 'Version History' option. Once opened, the version history shows a list of all versions, from the most recent to the oldest, with the details described above.

In the version history, users can click on each version to view more details or open the version itself. Details include:

• Version status: which indicates if it is a draft, a version under review or a published version.
• Specific changes: for some types of files (for example, Word documents), you can see exactly what changes have been made between the different versions.
• Access permissions for versions: Some versions may be visible only to users with special permissions, such as minor versions awaiting approval.
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Version history offers numerous advantages and features for document management and control:

1. Audit and traceability: version history provides a complete audit of all changes made to documents, allowing users to understand how the document has changed over time. This is useful in case of internal control or for analysis of specific changes.
2. Monitoring and accountability: knowing who modified a document and when, offers transparency and accountability within the team, facilitating communication and management of revisions.
3. Fast recovery of previous versions: in the event that a change compromises the document, it is possible to quickly return to a previous version directly from the history. This is especially useful to avoid data loss and to ensure that unwanted changes can be undone.
4. Collaboration support: in collaboration between users, the history of the versions makes it possible to understand exactly where another member of the team stopped, facilitating the transition and the continuity of work.
5. Comments and annotations: Every time a new version is saved, you can add a comment. This is useful for documenting the reason for the changes, providing collaborators with an overview of what has changed and the context of the changes.

In SharePoint, administrators can configure version history management. Key options include:

• Number of versions to keep: to reduce storage space, SharePoint allows you to limit the number of versions to keep. For example, you can choose to keep only the last 10 major or minor versions.
• Only major versions or even minor versions: you can configure whether to save only major versions (excluding drafts) or to also include minor versions in the history.
• Access control for secondary versions: it is possible to decide who can view secondary versions (for example, only authors and approvers), maintaining a certain level of confidentiality.

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Restoring previous versions in SharePoint

The possibility of restore previous versions is one of SharePoint's most useful document management features. In many collaborative settings, it's common for documents to be updated frequently by multiple users, which increases the risk of errors, unwanted changes, or overwritten data. SharePoint, with its version management, allows you to quickly restore a previous version of the document, ensuring security and reliability for the data.

Every time a new version of a document or item is created, SharePoint saves a full copy of the content, allowing users to access and view previous versions. Restoring allows you to select a specific version from History of versions and to set it as the current version. This process overwrites the current version with the chosen version, returning the document to its previous state.

Restoring previous versions is useful in a number of situations:

1. Accidental errors: If a user accidentally modifies a document or deletes important content, it is possible to restore a previous version to recover lost data.
2. Unwanted changes: in collaborative settings, it may happen that a user makes changes that the whole team does not want. Restoring versions allows you to undo these changes.
3. Return to a control point: In many cases, organizations set up control points for particular versions. If subsequent changes are not satisfactory, you can return to either of these points without having to do the work again.
4. Experiments and tests: for projects that require experiments or tests, it is useful to save versions and be able to go back easily if the results are not what you want.

To restore a previous version of a document in SharePoint, users must Access version history of the document or element and this can be done by right-clicking on the document and selecting 'Version History' from the context menu.

After that they will have to Find the desired version in the list of versions, displayed from the most recent to the oldest, where users can scroll to find the version to restore.

Once you have found the desired version, click on the down arrow that appears next to the date and time and then on 'Recover'. This will set the selected version as the current version.

Once the recovery is complete, SharePoint will create a new major version of the document containing the data from the restored version. This way, the recovery process is also tracked, allowing users to revert back to the next version if necessary.

In SharePoint, administrators can configure versioning settings to optimize the use of recovery capabilities. Some of the configuration options include:

• Limit on the number of versions kept: To reduce the use of storage space, you can set a limit on the number of versions saved (for example, only the last 10 versions). In this case, the older versions are automatically deleted.
• Restoring major versions only: in some libraries, you can set up the management of only major versions, without minor versions, so that documents can be restored only to published and approved versions.
• Access permissions: administrators can define who has permission to view and restore previous versions, ensuring that only authorized users can perform this operation.

Version permission control

The verifying version permissions in SharePoint it is essential for managing access to content that is being modified and approved. This functionality allows administrators to define who can view or modify the minor versions (drafts) of a document or item, and who can access the published major versions.

In SharePoint, you can configure specific permissions to control access to versions of documents and items in a list, creating an access scheme that protects information at different stages of the document's lifecycle:

1. Authors and Approvers: SharePoint allows you to set access to secondary versions only for authors (who uploaded or modified the document) and for approvers. This means that only users involved in the review process can see the changes in progress, while other users will only see the published version.
2. View major versions: major (approved) versions can be visible to all users with access to the library or list, regardless of their permissions on secondary versions. This ensures that only the final, approved versions are available to a wider audience.
3. Custom permissions: for specific needs, you can define detailed permissions for individual documents or groups of users. Administrators can configure permissions to allow or restrict access based on specific roles or users.

Content approval settings

Le content approval settings In SharePoint, they allow you to control which documents or items are visible to users before they are approved. This is crucial to ensure that only controlled and verified content is published and accessible to the public.

With approval settings active, documents and items must go through a review process before becoming visible to all users. Until they are approved, the documents remain in a 'draft' state and are visible only to those who have the necessary permissions to view them (such as authors and approvers).

The key elements of content approval are:

1. Approval states: a document can have different statuses, such as' Pending ',' Approved 'or 'Rejected'. Administrators can define which state represents a document ready for public viewing.
2. Approval workflow: Approval can be automated with workflows, which require approvers to review and approve content before it is published. This process can include a chain of approvals or a simple single approval.
3. Limited visibility of drafts: drafts (minor versions) are visible only to authors and approvers until they are approved. Once approved, major versions become accessible to all users with authorization for the library or list.

SharePoint intelligent versioning: What does the future hold?

During the Microsoft Build conference in May, Microsoft discreetly released the public preview of the new Advanced Version Control feature, previously known as Intelligent Versioning in the Microsoft 365 roadmap. This is one of several features that Microsoft has recently introduced to help organizations save storage space and reduce storage costs in Microsoft 365.

Over the past decade, organizations have accumulated a large amount of data, and according to IDC, by 2025 there will be more than 130 billion terabytes of content in the world. In Microsoft 365, many customers are starting to reach their shared storage limits and are faced with the difficult task of analyzing all their data to figure out what to delete or whether to pay for additional space.

An easy way to reduce costs is to delete versions of files that are no longer needed. Many users and administrators forget that version history is active by default in every document library that you create. Coupled with features such as automatically saving Office documents, many organizations now use a large amount of space just to have 200 versions of the same file. Fortunately, the new Smart Versioning setting in SharePoint Online can help.

Although versions in SharePoint Online have always been (and still are) a very powerful feature, as administrators, we've never had the necessary controls to manage them on a large scale. It was also difficult to find the right balance between keeping too many versions and discarding the old ones. Thankfully, Microsoft just released a new way for administrators to manage versions within their tenants.

From the SharePoint Admin Center, you will have a new option for SharePoint version history limits in the Settings tab. Once we reach the page, we will have to choose whether to use the Automatic method recommended by Microsoft to manage versions or the Manual method.

It's very important to note that the settings configured here are tenant-level but only apply to new OneDrive accounts and new SharePoint document libraries. They won't change anything for any existing OneDrive accounts or SharePoint libraries.

Let's first analyze the Automatic method recommended by Microsoft. Automatic limits are based on the principle that the recoverability value of versions decreases with age. The automatic setting uses an algorithm to gradually reduce versions as they age, keeping versions at key moments. This gives users access to file versions over a wide time range and optimizes the use of version storage space.

Here's how the automatic works:

• For the first 30 days, all versions within the 500 limit are kept.
• For the next 30 days, hourly versions are maintained.
• After 180 days: daily versions are kept.
• Longer than 180 days: weekly versions are kept indefinitely.
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The manual option is simpler and is based on time or the number of versions, or both. There is one limitation to know: the user interface does not allow you to set a value lower than 100 major versions or less than 30 days as an expiration limit. You can still set up the system to keep fewer versions using public APIs.

Microsoft warns, however, that a value lower than 100 versions or with an expiration limit of less than 30 days is not recommended and may lead to unintentional data loss caused by user activity.

Conclusions

Versioning is, as we have seen, one of the most important features within the SharePoint ecosystem and allows users and administrators to keep full control of the history of documents and their versions.

Having this type of control is not only a matter of order, but rather at ensuring shared work environments in which 'coordination' and 'clarity' become the keywords for any operation and where your employees can finally take care of their work without worries and without compromising the work of others and vice versa.

There is a reason that for more than 20 years, SharePoint has still been one of the leading software in the field of business collaboration and it is thanks also to features such as those related to versioning and Microsoft's constant commitment to updating and expanding them that the Redmond company's collaboration platform continues, after all this time, to remain on the crest of the wave.

FAQ on SharePoint versioning

What is versioning in SharePoint?

Versioning in SharePoint is the process of tracking and managing changes to documents and items within libraries and lists. It allows users to access a revision history, see who made the changes, and restore previous versions, if necessary.

How does versioning improve collaboration?

Versioning improves collaboration by providing a safety net when co-creating documents and updating lists. In the event of errors, users can revert to previous versions, ensuring data integrity and facilitating teamwork.

What are the different versioning settings available in SharePoint?

SharePoint offers several versioning settings:

• Major versions: Trace significant changes with integers (e.g. 1.0, 2.0).
• Minor versions (Drafts): They track minor updates with decimal numbers (e.g. 1.1, 1.2).
• Version limits: They allow you to set a limit on the number of versions maintained to manage storage space.

How can I enable versioning in a SharePoint library or list?

To enable versioning:

1. Go to the bookstore or list.
2. Click on Settings (gear icon) and select Library Settings or List Settings.
3. Click Versioning Settings.
4. Configure the versioning options as desired.
5. Click OK to save your changes.

Can I restore a previous version of a document in SharePoint?

Yes, to revert to a previous version:

1. Go to the document library.
2. Right-click on the document and select Version History.
3. In the version history window, hover over the date of the version you want to restore.
4. Click on the drop-down arrow and select Restore.

Does SharePoint versioning affect storage?

Yes, each version consumes storage space. To manage space, configure versioning limits to keep only a specified number of newer versions.

What is the future of versioning in SharePoint?

Microsoft is continuously improving SharePoint's versioning capabilities, integrating intelligent features to improve document management and collaboration.