With Microsoft Office Live Workspace, you can keep multiple versions of a document. Office Live Workspace automatically saves a version of your document if more than 12 hours have elapsed since your last edit, or if other people make changes to your document since you last revised it. Additionally, the document owner can manually save a version of a document at any time. Versions are created for notes and all Microsoft Office documents that are saved in Office Live Workspace. Versions are not created for lists.

 Note:   Only the document owner can save, restore, overwrite, or delete a document version.

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View document version history

To view the list of earlier versions of a document:

1. In Office Live Workspace, on the left navigation bar, locate the document for which you want to view version history.

2. On the toolbar, click the arrow on the Version button

   

   to expand the Version menu. The list of saved versions appears at the top of the Version menu. Versions are listed by the date and time that they were saved.
   
   

    Note:    If you click the Version button instead of clicking the arrow that appears on that button, the most recently saved earlier version of that document opens.

3. On the Version menu, click a version to view it.

Save a version

If your Office Live Workspace has available storage space, you can save up to eight versions of a document at one time. To manually save a version of your document:

1. In Office Live Workspace, on the left navigation bar, locate the document for which you want to save a version.

2. On the toolbar, click the arrow on the Version button to expand the Version menu, and then click Save to version history.

    Note:   After you manually save a version, it appears in the Version menu. Because this manually saved version contains the same content as the current version that appears in your workspace, you cannot open the manually saved version from the Version menu until you make changes to the current version.

Restore an earlier version

When you restore an earlier version of a document, the current version is automatically placed in your version history so that you can retrieve it later if needed. To restore an earlier version of a document:

1. In Office Live Workspace, on the left navigation bar, locate the document that has a version that you want to restore.

2. On the toolbar, click the arrow on the Version button to expand the Version menu, and then select the version that you want to restore. The earlier version opens in your workspace.

    Note:   The earlier version opens for read-only viewing within your workspace.

3. On the toolbar, click Restore. You are asked to confirm that you want to restore this version. Click OK to restore it.

    Note:   To make changes to the document in its original application, on the toolbar, click Edit. Alternatively, on the toolbar, click Save As, and then select the location on your computer where you want to access the document.

Overwrite an existing version

Office Live Workspace lets you overwrite the current version of a document. The current version is then automatically placed in your version history in case you need to retrieve it later. To overwrite a document:

1. In Office Live Workspace, on the left navigation bar, locate the document that has a version that you want to overwrite.

2. On the toolbar, click the arrow on the Version button to expand the Version menu, and then select Upload and overwrite file.

3. In the Choose file dialog box, select the document that you want to use to overwrite the current version in Office Live Workspace, and then click Open.

    Note:   The document that you use to overwrite the current version must use the same file name extension as the current version. For example, if you are overwriting a document named Budget.xlsx, you must replace it with another document named Budget.xlsx, not Budget.pptx.

Delete a version

When you delete an earlier version, it is permanently deleted. You cannot restore it from the Deleted Items workspace.

To delete one version from a document's version history:

1. In Office Live Workspace, on the left navigation bar, locate the document that has a version that you want to delete.

2. On the toolbar, click the arrow on the Version button to expand the Version menu, and then select the version that you want to delete. The earlier version opens in your workspace.

3. On the toolbar, click Delete. You are asked to confirm that you want to delete this version. Click OK to delete it.

Delete the version history for a document

When you delete the version history of a document, all of the earlier versions are permanently deleted. You cannot restore them from the Deleted Items workspace.

To delete the entire version history of a document:

1. In Office Live Workspace, on the left navigation bar, locate the document for which you want to delete the version history.

2. On the toolbar, click the arrow on the Version button to expand the Version menu, and then click Delete all versions.

Troubleshoot

Why does my document have no version history?

If No versions saved appears at the top of the Version menu for a document, this can indicate one of two issues:

• The document owner has deleted the version history.

• No changes have been made to the current version. A new version is only created after a change has been made to the current version.

Why is Save to version history unavailable?

Save to version history may be unavailable on the Version menu if your workspace has insufficient storage space to add the version, or if eight versions already exist in the version history for the document.

• If eight versions currently exist in the version history for the document, the Version menu notes Maximum number of versions reached. You must delete at least one version from the version history before you can save an additional version.

• When the content saved in your workspaces approaches 500 MB of available storage space, a warning message appears at the top of your workspace explaining that you may have insufficient room for adding new documents or new document versions. You can free up storage space by deleting documents from your workspaces that you no longer need, and then removing these documents from your Deleted Items workspace. For more information, see Delete or restore workspace documents. After you have deleted unneeded documents, try to save a version of your document again.

   Note:   After you have saved the current version to version history, the Save to version history option on the Version menu is unavailable until you make additional changes to the document.

Why don't I see the Version button on the toolbar?

If the Version button does not appear, you are probably working on a list. Versioning is not supported for lists.