Thanks for the clarification.
The point you made, that is clear from the cries of pain we see posted, the changes are all too often happening near the end of the writing process. Minor edits. This highlights another preventative measure. Making frequent "incremental" file copies. The following
tools and macros add functionality that Word / Office! is still missing, doing true "autosaves" (NOT autorecover!) and optionally adding timestamps to the autosaves.
Sure Graham's "Autohistory" tool creates a lot of "clutter", apparently unneeded, wasted space, extra copies of the files. But at least you have the option of cleaning them up when you don't need them, AND they are there when you DO need them. At the last minute
disasters we are seeing posted! That is why I like the tool so much and set the interval to 5 minutes when I'm working on "important" documents. I just have to remember to periodically go back an prune out extra copies I know I no longer need. I typically
start by keeping just the full hour copies. farther back I keep just 2 or 3 copies per day and even farther back, just one copy per day.
Autohistory for Word 2007 / 2010, Excel 2010 (Version Control)
https://autohistory.codeplex.com/
(equivalent to GMayor tool) Creates a Date&Timestamped copy of file every time you perform a normal Save. You can access any of the older versions. It creates a folder for each document affected. You have to the option of creating a single
“universal” backup location. The History is located in a NEW GRROUP on the View Tab.
Automatically backup Word documents
http://www.gmayor.com/automatically_backup.htm
Graham has created an addin that does something MS should have done 20+ years ago.
<snip>
Contrary to popular opinion, Word has no integral means of automatically saving the current document, nor of backing-up the current document. What it does have is an option to save
AutoRecover information after a specific and configurable interval and an option to save a backup copy of the
previously saved version of the document with the default file extension of
WBK (and although there is no reason to do so, Word also allows the option to change this extension to the user's choice). This is not a true backup in as much as it is not a copy of the
current version of the document.
A function to create a true automatic backup is provided by the
**Save In Two Places add-in which is detailed in a separate page**, There is also available from this web site a complementary add-in which provides numbered versions of a document.
**Again that has its own web page.**
</snip>
Save Numbered Versions Add-In for Word 2007 & 2010
http://www.gmayor.com/SaveVersionsAdd-In.htm
Save Numbered Backup Versions of Document
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/SaveIncrementedFilename.htm
Save Dated & numbered Backup versions of a document - Word
http://www.gmayor.com/save_numbered_versions.htm
Saving Everything Macros
http://word.tips.net/T001469_Saving_Everything.html
Summary: Need to force users to save their work? It may be as simple as implementing an AutoNew() to force every new file to have a filename, and an AutoClose() to save the current document BEFORE closing. It could, however, also have something to do
with training users.
Controlling Names of Backup Files
http://wordribbon.tips.net/T011760_Controlling_Names_of_Backup_Files.html
Save the current document in two locations add-in for Word 2007 & 2010
http://www.gmayor.com/SaveInTwoPlacesAddIn.htm
Performs a normal save in one location, then does a DOS copy to the second location (ie USB)
Making Backups as You Work
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=731710&seqNum=5
Win8 Tip: Enable File History
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows8/windows-8-tip-enable-file-history-143579