Six copies of the same letter
Keep one letter rather than six, and still get an earlier wording back if you want it.
Nobody sets out to have letter, letter2, letter final and letter final FINAL2. They arrive one sensible decision at a time, and every one of those decisions was made out of caution.
The caution is sound: you did not want to lose what the letter said before. The trouble is that Save As makes a second file and leaves the first exactly where it was, so the caution multiplies rather than protecting anything.
Key points
- Keep one document and let the program remember the earlier wordings.
- Bring back what a letter said last Tuesday.
- Say how six copies of one letter happen to careful people.
What to remember
- Version history is kept automatically. Look for it before you ever reach for Save As.
- One file, saved often, with a history behind it. That is safer than six files and a guess.
Try this
Open something you have edited more than once and look under File for Version history or Previous versions. You do not have to restore anything. Seeing that the list is there is the whole point — it is what makes one file feel safe.
Practice: Six copies of the same letter. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.