Last Updated on April 27, 2024
Confused between major and minor versions?
Well, depending on how you use SharePoint, having one or both can simplify your content management.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the different types of versioning in SharePoint Online and how to enable both of them.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents:
Every time you make a change in a document in a library, edit a list, or make some changes on a page, the system creates a new version.
Versioning has three primary features:
- Track the history of a version and see various information (like the date the change occurred and who caused it)
- Restore a previous version of a document, list, or page with the restored version becoming the new current version
- View a previous version without restoring or overwriting the current version
Version history is now enabled by default on all newly created document libraries and lists — and saves the last 500 versions of a document.
Most default list types also support version history like issue tracking lists, calendars, custom lists, and many others.
For document libraries, version history also works on all file types that you can store in the document library (documents and pages).
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If you want to see the version history of a specific item or document, simply navigate to the list or library where it is located.
Once there:
- Right-click on the file
- Click version history from the options
You will then see a new dialogue box open with all the saved versions of the file.
If you want to view, restore, or delete a version, simply click on it and specify the action that you want to do.
Note: For more information on version control, check out this article: SharePoint Version Control: The Strongest Feature?
SharePoint Online saves two versions — major and minor versions.
- Think of major versions as the ones representing a milestone, or a big change in the document, like submitting it for publication.
- That follows that minor versions are the small changes being made to a document — like small corrections here and there.
The way you use both versions depends entirely on you. For starters, here’s how organizations typically use them:
- Minor versions are typically used when the file is still under development.
- While a document is still in draft, most leaders set up a security protocol so only the people who have permission can see the draft.
- The major version is then recorded when a document is ready for general viewing or when it is published.
Versioning in lists is a little different. That’s because lists don’t support minor versions. Instead, items remain in pending status until approved.
You will know if the version is a major one since the version number is a whole number. Minor versions are tracked and shown as decimal numbers.
As I wrote earlier, versioning is enabled by default today. But the things you can adjust will depend on the library or list.
Major and minor versions in document libraries
Minor versioning is disabled by default in document libraries. On the bright side, you can always enable it anytime.
Versioning is required in a document library for restoring previous versions and for file retention.
This means you won’t be able to disable versioning in a document library. You can set the minimum (100) and maximum (50,000) versions recorded though.
If you want to change the number of versions saved or enable minor versions in the document library, follow these steps:
- Click the gear icon on the target library
- Hit the library settings option
- See more library settings
On the next page, click the versioning settings link:
You will see here that by default, the option for creating major versions is automatically selected.
If you only wanted to change the number of major versions the system will save, all you have to do is change the value on the numerical field.
If you want to add minor versions into the mix, you need to select the option for creating major and minor (draft) versions.
Right then, you will be able to specify the maximum number of drafts (minor versions) of a major version:
Versioning in custom lists
Similar to document libraries, major versions in custom lists are enabled by default while there are no minor versions.
However, custom lists have a draft functionality that kind of works like minor versions. Item lists that are in draft mode are in pending status.
The system can save as many as 50,000 versions, although, by default, it only saves the last 50 major versions.
One difference here though is that versioning can be totally disabled. Here’s what I mean:
- Click the gear icon on the target custom list
- Hit the list settings option
On the next page, click the versioning settings link:
By default, a custom list saves major versions without any minor versions.
If you want to disable versioning altogether, all you have to do is select the no option on creating versions.
If you want the custom list to create drafts for item lists (in pending status until approved), all you have to do is enable and specify the number of drafts:
Minor and major versions in a site pages library
The versioning in the SharePoint Online site pages library has both major and minor versions enabled by default.
On the other hand, you can also disable the whole versioning feature completely or just the minor versions.
But I don’t recommend touching the settings here besides the number of versions that will be saved since it will mess up the restore function in the pages.
For the sake of explaining things, you can select any of the options:
- Versioning completely disabled
- Major versions only
- Major and minor versions
Meanwhile, you can use the appropriate numerical fields to specify the number of major and minor versions to keep:
How to switch from minor to major versions
The next question now is how to promote a minor version as the major version. Well, it turns out that you really don’t have to do anything special.
There are three main methods that this happens automatically:
- Publishing a document or a page.
- Checking in a document or a page that you checked out.
- Approving changes via content approval.
This means that when you act on a document or a file and move it to publish, the current working version will become the major version.
Again, versioning works differently with lists. Item lists that are being edited will gain a pending status and will become a major version when saved.
So which type of version control do you prefer? Kindly share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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