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Posted to users@subversion.apache.org by ma...@cappsdigital.com on 2007/03/29 17:57:05 UTC
Versioning word documents
We have an intitive at work that requires the versioning of word
documents. However since we do not have access to the version of Word that
allows saving a document in an XML-format does that mean the only way to
accurately version word documents is to treat them as binaries?
Re: Versioning word documents
Posted by Jared Silva <ja...@gmail.com>.
http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/svn/tortoisesvn/trunk/contrib/other/diff-scripts/
username : guest
password : ""
Definitely not workarounds. =)
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Re: Versioning word documents
Posted by Ivan Aleman <bo...@gmail.com>.
2007/3/29, Andy Levy <an...@gmail.com>:
>
> Subversion treats binaries and test files the same to begin with, as
> far as diffing is concerned and the repository will not grow by the
> full file size on each commit.
>
> Apply an svn:mime-type of application/msword to all your Word files as
> an extra precaution.
>
> If you use TortoiseSVN, it comes with a script which will let you view
> the differences between 2 versions using Word's built-in capabilities.
>
> Is Word's XML format even plain XML, or is it zipped (thus requiring
> it be handled as a binary anyway) like OpenOffice?
>
So there are workarounds for the diffing part?
Great! Still I prefer plain old text.
Thank you Andy for the info :)
>
--
Iván Alemán - http://bonovoxmofo.blogspot.com
Cambia ya!
http://goodbye-microsoft.com/
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Re: Versioning word documents
Posted by Andy Levy <an...@gmail.com>.
On 3/29/07, matthew.kidd@cappsdigital.com <ma...@cappsdigital.com> wrote:
>
> We have an intitive at work that requires the versioning of word documents.
> However since we do not have access to the version of Word that allows
> saving a document in an XML-format does that mean the only way to accurately
> version word documents is to treat them as binaries?
Subversion treats binaries and test files the same to begin with, as
far as diffing is concerned and the repository will not grow by the
full file size on each commit.
Apply an svn:mime-type of application/msword to all your Word files as
an extra precaution.
If you use TortoiseSVN, it comes with a script which will let you view
the differences between 2 versions using Word's built-in capabilities.
Is Word's XML format even plain XML, or is it zipped (thus requiring
it be handled as a binary anyway) like OpenOffice?
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Re: Versioning word documents
Posted by Jared Silva <ja...@gmail.com>.
karl.kornel@mindspeed.com wrote:
> Another note that might be helpful: You can use --Fixed-Length-- keywords
> (ONLY fixed-length keywords) in Word and PowerPoint documents. I put the
> $Id:: $ in the header/first slide, and the $Rev:: $ in each
> subsequent-page header/slide. I have also tried fixed-length keywords in
> Visio documents, but it doesn't seem to work. You'll also have to remember
> (and remind) others that there isn't a $Log:: $ keyword in Subversion, so
> be prepared to have fun if you want to use version control AND have a
> "document history" page in each document!
>
> I should reiterate the fixed-length part: If you use a variable-length
> keyword, Word will most likely refuse to open, or even recover, the file (as
> happened with me).
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.advanced.props.special.keywords.html
The use of fixed-length keywords is especially handy when performing
substitutions into complex file formats that themselves use
fixed-length fields for data, or for which the stored size of a given
data field is overbearingly difficult to modify from outside the
format's native application (such as for Microsoft Office documents).
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Re: Versioning word documents
Posted by ka...@mindspeed.com.
"Ivan Aleman" <bo...@gmail.com> wrote on 03/29/2007 11:25:09 AM:
> 2007/3/29, matthew.kidd@cappsdigital.com
<ma...@cappsdigital.com>:
> >
> > We have an intitive at work that requires the versioning of word
documents.
> > However since we do not have access to the version of Word that allows
> > saving a document in an XML-format does that mean the only way to
accurately
> > version word documents is to treat them as binaries?
>
> Hello Mattew,
>
> The short answer is: Yes, you have or better subversion has to handle
> them as binaries.
>
><<<snip>>>
Another note that might be helpful: You can use --Fixed-Length-- keywords
(ONLY fixed-length keywords) in Word and PowerPoint documents. I put the
$Id:: $ in the header/first slide, and the $Rev:: $ in each
subsequent-page header/slide. I have also tried fixed-length keywords in
Visio documents, but it doesn't seem to work. You'll also have to
remember (and remind) others that there isn't a $Log:: $ keyword in
Subversion, so be prepared to have fun if you want to use version control
AND have a "document history" page in each document!
I should reiterate the fixed-length part: If you use a variable-length
keyword, Word will most likely refuse to open, or even recover, the file
(as happened with me).
-- A. Karl Kornel, Mindspeed Technologies, Inc.
karl.kornel@mindspeed.com -- (949) 579-3503
"Remember the Rules: Separation & Optimization"
Re: Versioning word documents
Posted by Ivan Aleman <bo...@gmail.com>.
2007/3/29, matthew.kidd@cappsdigital.com <ma...@cappsdigital.com>:
>
> We have an intitive at work that requires the versioning of word documents.
> However since we do not have access to the version of Word that allows
> saving a document in an XML-format does that mean the only way to accurately
> version word documents is to treat them as binaries?
Hello Mattew,
The short answer is: Yes, you have or better subversion has to handle
them as binaries.
Let me tell you that in my experience versioning binary documents
(such Word docs) was a good idea in the planning stage once we did it
well that's very different history for example if you find yourself
and others doing changes to a document its not possible to find the
differences between versions due the binary status of the files so you
have to write in different font color and do tricks to makke your
changes clear and you end loosing time, at that time we were using
trac for issue bug tracking and milestone tracking, so I decided that
my team and I should try the wiki for documentation and I mean all the
documentation. I am also using Lyx for final/to be print documentation
importing from trac to Lyx (almost all the power of LaTex is there)
Plain text is also a good idea, if you learn LyX (it takes like 4
hours relatively) and you teach others to use it, then everybody can
export to plain ASCII text and use that for versioning doing the
changes with VIM, notepad++ or anything you're used to, later you can
import to LyX again the ASCII text file and deliver a PDF or HTML,
etc. LyX runs on most platforms.
Regards.
>
--
Iván Alemán - http://bonovoxmofo.blogspot.com
Cambia ya!
http://goodbye-microsoft.com/
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