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Using Revision History

The Composer's Revision History feature lets you monitor and control modifications made to your stories across time. This tool empowers you to track changes, restore to prior versions, and examine comprehensive metadata adjustments for each story. 

With the Revision History feature in Composer, you gain access to a record of up to 100 story versions. This functionality enables you to:

  • access a list of versions on a story

  • view a specific version and its changes

  • revert to any previous version, as needed

The Revision History page provides two primary views: Story comparison and Story preview. 

Story Comparison

The Story comparison section displays the differences between the selected version and the previous version. For example, if you choose Version 10, you’re viewing the differences between Version 10 and Version 9. 

Within the story comparison, you can see additions to the story marked in green and removals from the story marked in red, strikethrough text. 

Story Preview

The Story preview section displays the full content of the story as it was in that version, including any text, images, or formatting that was present. You can also review the metadata on each tab. 

Accessing Revision History

To access the revision history for a particular story, follow these steps. 

  1. Navigate to Composer. 

  2. Open a story by either searching or clicking the story name.

  3. Click the ellipsis icon > View revisions. The Revision History page opens.

Viewing a Specific Version

Within the Revision History page, you can view any version of the story. 

  1. From the list of revisions, click the version you want to view. A detailed view of the selected version opens, displaying the following information: 

    • the date the version was created

    • who created the version

    • story comparison to view metadata differences

    • story preview to see a snapshot of the story when the version was created

Reverting to a previous version

To restore a previous version, follow these steps: 

  1. Navigate to Composer. 

  2. Open a story by either searching or clicking the story name.

  3. Click the ellipsis icon > View revisions. The Revision History page opens. 

  4. Select the version you want to restore. 

  5. Click Restore this version. After you confirm, the system redirects you to the restored version. Composer creates a new revision to mark this change. 

Exiting Revision History

You can exit revision history at any time by clicking Exit revision history. 

Untracked metadata and feature limitations

Certain types of data tracking and general limitations that are not currently supported in Revision History. If you’d like these items prioritized, we encourage you to vote on them in the Ideas Portal.

  • Currently, Revision History does not track the following metadata changes:

    • Circulations 

    • Authors

    • Corrections

    • Related items

    • SEO Keywords

    • Tags

    • Comments

    • Stock symbols

    • Featured media overrides

  • Additionally, Revision History does not track actions that were taken on a story outside of when a version was published or unpublished. Revision history does not track

    • Scheduling a story

    • Unscheduling a story

    • Cloning a story

    • Configure channels

    • Clipboard actions

    • Send to print 

    • Print story

    • Opening a story in Read Only mode

    • Suggestions

    • Spellchecking

    • WebSked actions (if enabled)

      • Add to Collection

      • Create tasks

      • Pitch to Platforms or Publications

      • Workflow status changes

  • Revision history tracks no more than 100 revisions. 

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