6 <tmdoc-title|Versioning tools>
8 When writing documents in collaboration with other authors, it frequently
9 arises that one wants to go through changes made by the other authors, and
10 either accept, discard or further correct them. After enabling the
11 versioning tool through <menu|Edit|Preferences|Utilities|Versioning tool>,
12 a<nbsp>special menu <menu|Version> appears in the main menu bar, which
13 makes this process automatic. Let us describe in more detail how this tool
16 For the moment, automatic version control systems such as <name|Subversion>
17 are not yet supported. In the future, we intend to include support for such
18 systems and the operation of merging two different new versions.
20 <paragraph|Comparing two versions>
22 Assume that we have two versions <verbatim|old.tm> and <verbatim|new.tm> of
23 the same document. In order to see the changes, first load the newest
24 version <verbatim|new.tm>, then click on <menu|Version|File|Compare> and
25 select the oldest version <verbatim|old.tm>. The buffer will still be named
26 <verbatim|new.tm>, and the changes between both versions will be indicated
27 by special markup. If there are any changes, then the cursor will be
28 positioned at the first difference.
30 <paragraph|Visualizing the differences>
32 Differences between the two versions can be displayed in three ways: by
33 showing only the old version, only the new version, or both versions
34 simultaneously. In all cases, the old version is displayed in dark red and
35 the new version in dark green.
37 The visualization style can be specified individually for each individual
38 change, via <menu|Version|Show> or the keyboard shortcuts <key|C-left> (old
39 version), <key|C-right> (new version) and <key|C-\|> (both versions). One
40 may also cycle through the different style using the structured variant key
41 <key|C-tab>. The visualization style may also be specified globally, using
42 <menu|Version|File|Show old version>, <menu|Version|File|Show new version>
43 and <menu|Version|File|Show both versions>.
45 <paragraph|Going through the differences>
47 It is possible to go through all differences between the old and new
48 versions either from the items in the submenu <menu|Version|Move>, or using
49 the keyboard shortcuts <key|C-up> and <key|C-down>. One may also use the
50 more general structured navigation shortcuts <key|C-home>, <key|C-end>,
51 <key|C-pageup> and <key|C-pagedown>.
53 <paragraph|Retaining a specific version>
55 It often occurs that we want to go through the changes between two versions
56 and progressively retain either one or the other version for each
57 individual difference. Assuming that the cursor is inside a given
58 difference, this can be done from entries in the submenu
59 <menu|Version|Retain>. Alternatively, one may use the shortcuts <key|C-1>,
60 <key|C-2> and <key|C-return> to retain the old, new and currently displayed
61 version, respectively. If both versions are displayed, then <key|C-return>
62 retains the new version. After retaining one of the versions, we
63 automatically jump to the next difference, which can then be processed.
65 It is also possible to globally select the old, new or current version
66 using <menu|Version|File|Retain old version>, <menu|Version|File|Retain new
67 version>, <abbr|resp.> <menu|Version|File|Retain current version>. A
68 convenient alternative way to process all differences is to use <key|C-up>
69 and <key|C-down> to go through the differences, use <key|C-left> and
70 <key|C-right> to select the preferred version, and then click on
71 <menu|Version|File|Retain current version> as soon as all differences have
74 <tmdoc-copyright|2010|Joris van der Hoeven>
76 <tmdoc-license|Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
77 document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
78 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
79 Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
80 Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free
81 Documentation License".>
86 <associate|language|english>