Writng-Keeping versions straight

Posted by jamesofford
Jul 8, 2011 at 01:33 PM

Greetings Folks:

This isn’t a post about new software, nor is it even about outliners or PIMs. I am not even suffering a case of CRIMP. But I do have a question. Does anyone have a good system for keeping different versions of a manuscript sorted out? I just finished writing a review article for a journal. As I was writing, I kept things organized the way I normally do, which is to say not very systematically. Versions were named Document_1.doc, and as time went on, things devolved to Document _3_revisions.doc. Then various versions of final: Document_4_final.doc, Document_4_final2.doc etc. In the end, I had an unholy mess after I added references.

This raised a question for me-before I start my next writing project, what is the best way to keep track of versions? I don’t like to overwrite earlier versions because I might go back and pull something out that I deleted in a later version.

Do any of you have any suggestions as to naming conventions, etc to help this process? Is there such a thing as version control software for writing?

I thank you for any insights you can give.

Jim