Version History Changes for a Document

Question

I have a Document Library in SP 2013 site, with document added to it and it has metadata/properties associated with it. The library has only Versioning turned on and no Check Out is enforced. The document is modified multiple times and also its metadata/properties. I go to the Version History for the document and can see that versions have been created whenever the document has been modified or it's metadata / properties have been updated.

When the metadata/properties have been updated, the Version History clearly shows what metadata/property has been changed from one version to another, but it doesn't show this information for any change that happened inside the document, though it increments the version.

Is there way to achieve this, if not through OOTB, through programming? If so, can anyone please provide some code?

Answer 1

I knew in Office there was a function to compare two documents but how to use it with SharePoint versions I never tried. Sometimes the answer is so close in front of you it turns invisible.

The trick is to just open the file from SharePoint in Edit mode. Word will open and under the review tab you find a button called compare.

Just choose Specific version from the pull downmenu and a list with the versions inside SharePoint is being displayed. From here Word will take over and do the rest. Even if you choose to combine SharePoint will turn it in to a new version.

Select the version of your file from this dialog.

I hope it works for you..:)

Answer 2

OOTB you cannot see what changes are done inside a document through version history. You can just visualize the metadata properties.

But you can download files for different versions and compare manually.

• Go to Version history.
• Click on context menu of each version.
• Download and view the file for that version.