Document Versioning System...

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(7 posts) (4 voices)

Started 2 years ago by robhixkg
Latest reply from PJ Doland
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robhixkg
Member

Good morning all,

I am in need of a good document versioning system. It seems that my career has changed from being an engineer who builds stuff and puts stuff together to an engineer who writes documents. I am having a difficult time working our a versioning system for my documents. Currently I use a three digit system. The first digit changes with MAJOR changes in the document. The second digit changes each time I release a document for review, and the third digit is for personal tracking between day. People other than me never see anything except vX.Y.0. In my working folder I have a version for each day that I worked on the document, so I will see version numbers like vX.Y.Z. Yes, I need to track the daily changes so that when I work at home I have proof of what was accomplished (in the book, this is a CYA file).

Does anyone else have a better alternative? This system works, but I feel overly burdened by the system.

Thanks in advance,
Rob Hix

Posted 2 years ago #
Claycat
Member

I am not technical, but I imagine someone else here will be. I hope you find a better alternative.

I'm interested in knowing how you feel about the changes. Were you happier building and putting stuff together? How do feel about writing documents? Are you okay with that?

Posted 2 years ago #
robhixkg
Member

Actually, I do not like the change. In some ways it is inevitable where I work. As you work your way up, the job becomes more document oriented. I consider myself and builder and creator. One of my favorite hobbies is woodworking. I have built a lot of the furniture in our house. I do not mind writing to document my work, but the documents I am writing now seem useless in my mind and they do not have a direct connection to anything useful in my mind. That is why, I guess, I do not like writing now.

I learn new things much better when I put my hands on them and experiment with them. I cannot usually just read a book and understand a concept as well as I need to. I need the hand-on. The problem in particular right now is that I have been thrown into this role and I am expected to be a subject matter expert on this one particular topic and I am having trouble digging my heels into it. I keep trying, but seem like I keep falling back.

When my mid-year performance review comes around I am going to talk with my supervisot about this and see if there is anything he can do to help me out. Sadly, I am not looking for any solution to my problem.

Posted 2 years ago #
JuliaJayne
Member

What part of the system feels like a burden? Would the company go along with a software program to handle documents better?

Maybe searching for a solution to the problem would help you feel better about things. http://www.capterra.com/document-management-software

If not, then you know what you have to do :)

Posted 2 years ago #
PJ Doland
Forum Admin

Have you considered using a software version control system, like subversion, git, or mercurial?

Here's a post we wrote on subversion last year.

Posted 2 years ago #
robhixkg
Member

Thanks PJ,

I use mercurial all the time for my programming code. One problem we have at work is there are very tight restrictions on what we can and cannot use. If it is anything that needs installation with administrator privileges I can forget it. If I can get it in under the radar I am usually ok. That is the main reason that I use mercurial.

I had forgotten I could use it with other than text files.

Thanks,
Rob Hix

Posted 2 years ago #
PJ Doland
Forum Admin

Rob-

You also might want to consider maintaining your documents in a text-based structured markup format (perhaps LaTeX or even something as simple as Markdown). Doing so will make it easier for you to compare specific versions of your files.

Posted 2 years ago #

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