[wplug] version control for e.g. MS Word documents

[Jason Jerome]

I think this is one of the reasons that MS wanted to change to a XML format.

We version a lot of Crystal Reports in Subversion, which is nice except there is no diff between the files.  We basically rely on descriptive log notes.  If all you are doing is versioning Word files, I'm not sure it will help you other than providing a way of organizing your versions.  There have been plenty of times I've wished I could compare one (binary) file to another to remember exactly what I had changed.

We ran across a similiar problem with Word, and started using RTF (Rich Text Format) files.  They open in Word, wordpad, notepad, etc and Subversion can diff them.

I'd suppose that if it was possible, that SourceSafe would be the first to have that feature?

Good luck...

----- Original Message ----
From: Duncan Hutty <dhutty+wplug at ece.cmu.edu>
To: wplug at wplug.org
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 3:16:49 PM
Subject: [wplug] version control for e.g. MS Word documents

I have a client who wants to have a version controlled archive for a 
series of documents in MS Word format. Notwithstanding the fact that I 
believe this is a bad format for all sorts of reasons, I have been 
charged with fulfilling their desire.

At the mention of version control, I instinctively jump for subversion. 
However, I know that svn/cvs/whatever don't do so well with 
non-plaintext files. Presumably a very large proportion of the file's 
data changes for even small document content changes and this makes 
diffs difficult (and, although of lesser importance, swells the 
repository considerably). I wonder whether anyone has any experience 
with a version control system for Word docs. Does this not matter? Will 
it just work?

Duncan Hutty

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