Version Preferences are a group of options concerning the following aspects of versioning:
• Coloring your versions
• Separating version numbers from file names
• Frequency of versioning
• Preserving forever the first version created
• Saving versions as "global" versions
Version Preferences are set on a per application basis. In other words, you first select an application and then apply Version Preferences options to it.
To set the Version Preferences for a particular application, first select it from the main list and then click on App Settings... in the Versionary Main Screen. In the App Settings dialog box that appears, click on Version Preferences... . The Version Preferences dialog box will be displayed.
Coloring Versions in the Finder
If your Finder has a color or label menu, (ie, if you have a color monitor displaying 16 or more colors or if you are running Apple System 7), you can use this option to make your versions display in the Finder in the same color as their current files, or in any of eight colors.
Reasons for Coloring Versions
Coloring your versions can help you distinguish the following:
• one set of versions of a document from another set of versions of the same document
• your versions from your current documents
• versions in one application from versions in another application
Making Your Selection
To choose the Finder color for your versions, press the popdown menu beside the first option in the Version Preferences dialog box. Stop at your choice of color or label. Thereafter, all versions created in that application will be that color or label.
Choosing a Version Number Separator
Versionary gives each version a unique identity by titling it with the name of the current document plus a version number. The name of the current document and the version number are separated, in the default, with a period (“.”). For example, the first version of a document called “Corfu,” will be titled “Corfu.1.” This option can be used to specify any character (except a colon (" : ")) as a version separator.
Reasons for Choosing a Separator
You can change the separator to almost any character you want through this option. Below are some reasons you might want to change from the period used as the default separator:
• Because a period may have another meaning to you in the titles of your documents.
• Because a period may have another meaning in the application you are versioning.
• To prevent deletion of a set of versions.
Versionary ignores versions with titles that differ by even one character from the versions it looks for. When you give a new character as the separator between names and version numbers, Versionary ignores versions that contain a different separator.
• To use a mnemonic to help you or others identify a set of versions, such as different states of a document. For instance, while working on your resume for IBM, you might use the ‘I’ as your separator. Later while working on the same resume for Microsoft, you might use the ‘M’ as your separator.
• To distinguish your versions from the versions of others if you alternately work on the same documents.
With your own unique separator (perhaps your first name or last name initial), you can keep your versions separate, thus preventing accidental deletion. When all members of a team work on a common document in their own way, such as when each fills out the same office form or edits the same work, all can keep their own sets of versions as well. (Later, documents could be compared to each other with DocuComp.)
Making Your Selection
When you click on Version Preferences... from the App Settings dialog box, you access the following two options regarding the separator between file names and version numbers:
• Separate version number suffix from file name with . .
You can leave the default option (a period) or type in a character of your own choice.
• Prompt me for new version marker each time I launch the app.
This option will give you a chance to decide each time you launch the application whether to create a new set of versions.
Remember that Versionary counts and deletes files according to the separator currently in the Version Preferences dialog box for that application; when you change the separator, a new set of versions is created, and versions with the old separator will not be deleted.
Determining Frequency of Versioning
An important aspect of your versioning is how often versions are created, or to be more exact, what determines when a new version is created.
When you click on Version Preferences... from the App Settings dialog box, you can make any one of the following choices:
• Version at every document save.
If you select this box, a new version will be created every time you save a document.
• Version only at first document save each “edit session.”
An edit session occurs every time you open and close a document whose application is set up for versioning. If you select this box, the document you open will be saved as a version immediately before you save your first changes to it. Thereafter, no new versions will be made while the document is open. Once you close the document and reopen it (thus starting a new edit session) the document will be versioned the next time you save your first changes again.
• Version no more than once every ___ minutes. (default: 30 minutes)
If you select this option, a version of your document will be created whenever you save, provided no version of that document has been created during the specified time. After the specified time has elapsed, a version will be created the next time you save.
Note: To get the results you desire, try to coordinate the frequency of versioning with the maximum number of versions (selected under App Settings) and with Auto-saving, if you are using that feature By taking a moment to think about your settings, you can avoid unintended results. (An example of an unintended result: you might select settings to Auto-save every minute, version at every save, yet keep only two versions—not realizing that with this combination of settings, at any point in time after the initial two minutes, you would be keeping versions of only your last two minutes’ work..)
Preserving the First Version
You may want to keep forever the first version made of every document in an application—for the record or for the sake of comparison. If you select this Version Preferences option, Versionary will use zero as the first version number, and never delete it (unless you change the version number to something other than zero).
When you click on Version Preferences... from the App Settings dialog box, you select this option by putting an X in the checkbox beside “Preserve the initial version forever, as version number 0.”
Saving Versions as Global Versions
If you want to further reduce disk space used by your versions, you may wish to have them saved as "global" versions. When saved in this way, your versions will all be named "document version" followed by the version separator and number, no matter what the current documents are named. For example, if you edit and save a document named "ledgers", its version will be named "document version.1". If you then edit and save a document named "sales report", its version will be named "document version.2." And so on and so forth. Older versions are deleted, as always, according to how many versions you tell Versionary to keep. Because all versions are named the same, different version trails are not maintained for different documents, and your total number of versions is dramatically reduced. Of course, you may not wish to give up the safety and convenience of different version trails.
You may set this option for one or more applications. If set for more than one application, your single version trail will be a mix of documents of different applications. For example, "document version.3" might be a Microsoft Word document and "document version.4" might be a MacDraw document.
Before you turn global versioning on for all your selected applications, give it a try in one or two and try it out with some sample documents. In this way, you'll get a feel for its advantages and disadvantages.
