### Managing versions

BSCW lets you access earlier versions of a document under version control by clicking the version number in the document’s info page or by directly entering its URL.

• Select Info rmation General in the action menu of the document requested.

• The info page of the document contains a section Version History and, for a document with version branches, another section Related Branches. The tables show for each version date of creation, author, state and change description.

• Click the version number of the version you want to read or download.

You may access an earlier version directly via its URL (for accessing BSCW objects via their URL in general see 4.11 URLs for objects in workspaces). For documents under version control, you append the version number to the normal URL for documents as shown in the following example:

http://your-bscw-server/bscw/bscw.cgi/d12345/report.doc?version=0.6

Note: You cannot make any changes to older versions of a document under version control unless you branch out from the version that you want to edit and modify the branch version.

If you want to delete versions of a document you do not need anymore,

• select Change Manage Versions . This brings up the version history giving date, author, status and change notices, if any, of all versions of the document that may be deleted. Note that technical reasons may forbid the destruction of a version, e.g., if there are branches originating from that version.

• With text and HTML documents, you may compare versions before deleting them. Check any two versions and hit [Compare Versions]. The comparison between the two versions will appear in the action form: additions are underlined, omissions are crossed out.

• Then check the versions that you want to destroy (make sure to uncheck all versions that you do not intend to destroy) and hit [Destroy Versions]. Note that destroying versions is irreversible.

When you destroy all versions of a document, you revoke version control, i.e. the document becomes a normal document again.