- 4 minutes to read

Undo or compare changes to an Article

New 7.12

Edit without fear. Every save that changes an Article's title, text, Content Type, or Document Profile keeps the previous text as a revision. A wrong edit is one restore away from undone, and you can always see who changed what, and when.

  • ✅ See every revision of an Article, with who changed it and when
  • ✅ Compare a revision with the current text, side by side
  • ✅ Restore an earlier text, or start a new document from it

Restore a revision, animated walkthrough: click Revision 3 in the History card, Restore whole document, confirm, and see step 3 back with Revision 4 marked Restored (7.12)
Animated walkthrough: step 3 of the runbook was removed by mistake; restore the revision from before the edit.

When you need this

Someone overwrote a working procedure, or you want to know what changed in a runbook since last month's incident.

What you need

Do it

  1. Open the Article in the editor. The History card is the last card on the right. Its header shows the number of revisions; each row shows Revision N, a badge for a special save, and who changed it and when. Click the revision from before the wrong edit.
    History card with five revisions: Revision 5 marked Profile changed, Revision 4 marked Restored, and Revisions 3 to 1 with user and time (7.12)
    A revision holds the text from before a save, so its user and time are who changed it and when.
  2. The Revision N dialog shows what the revision has that the current text doesn't, as removed lines. Browse older and newer revisions with ‹ ›. Then restore, compare, or clone, as below.
    Revision 3 dialog with the removed step as one red line, and the Delete, Compare side by side, Clone from this revision, Restore whole document, and Close buttons (7.12)
    The removed step is one red line. An HTML Article shows its HTML source, one line per paragraph, heading, or list item.

Restore the whole document

The walkthrough at the top of this page shows these steps.

  1. In the Revision N dialog, click Restore whole document.
  2. Confirm with Yes. Only the text comes back: the title, Document Profile, tags, and links stay as they are. The current text is written as a new revision first, so you can undo the restore.

An Article with a Document Profile also offers Restore this part, for one section.

Compare

Compare a revision, animated walkthrough: open Revision 3, Compare side by side, close, then Compare in the History header, Change the right side to a Template, and see the Article next to the Template it started from (7.12)
Animated walkthrough: compare a revision with the current text, then compare the Article with another document.

  1. In the Revision N dialog, click Compare side by side to read the revision next to the current text. Close brings you back to the revision.
    Compare with Revision 3 on the left and the current text on the right; the removed step is on its own line on the left (7.12)
    Compare side by side: the left side still has step 3.
  2. To compare with another document, click Compare in the History card's header. It opens with the current text and the newest revision.
  3. On either side, click Change, and pick the kind of document: Article…, Snippet…, Template…, or Document Profile….
  4. In Choose the document to compare, filter the list, then click Use. Swap sides and Side by side / Inline change the view; see Compare Articles.

Clone

Clone from a revision, animated walkthrough: click Revision 3, Clone from this revision, keep the suggested Name and Duplicate, and see the new Article with the revision's text (7.12)
Animated walkthrough: start a new Article from an earlier revision.

  1. In the Revision N dialog, click Clone from this revision.
  2. Keep or change the Name, suggested as title (from Revision N), and click Duplicate. Check Copy the history up to this revision to bring Revisions 1 to N along; it is off by default.

The new Article opens. It has the revision's text, plus the source's Document Profile, tags, Custom Metadata, and its links to Resources, Applications, Categories, and the Systems, Services, Integrations, and other Repository entities it documents. Links to C4 diagram elements are not copied. The source is unchanged. See Clone from a revision.

If the dialog says Forbidden and Nothing was created, the Article is linked to something your Role doesn't let you see, such as a System. Ask an administrator to clone it, or to give you the right; see Clone a Document.

What you'll see

After a restore, the text is back in the editor with the message Restored Main Body from revision N., and a new revision marked Restored is at the top of History. It holds the text from before the restore, and no later revision is removed.

Other badges in History: Profile changed marks a save that applied a Document Profile; Generated and Replaced are explained in Revision History.

If it doesn't work

  • You don't see Restore whole document or Clone from this revision. Restoring needs Modify and cloning needs Create on Articles; ask your administrator.
  • Old revisions are gone. Revisions are never removed automatically, but an administrator can purge them; see Purge revisions.

Next Steps