DEVONthink 4 supports automatic versioning, quietly saving snapshots of your documents as you work. But sometimes you want more control over which versions are preserved. That’s where named versions come in.
New in DEVONthink 4.2 Cassini, you can now manually save the current state of a document as a version and give it a distinct name. Unlike automatic versions that may be purged over time, named versions are permanent. They stick around until you explicitly remove them.
Think of named versions as bookmarks in your document’s evolution. Here are some practical scenarios:
- Document stages: Mark versions like “First Draft,” “After Editor Review,” or “Final for Client”
- Safe experimentation: Save a known good version before trying major revisions
- Milestone tracking: Preserve states like before presentation or before restructuring
- Collaborative checkpoints: Create a fallback before incorporating feedback
To save a named version, open the Versions inspector for the document with Tools > Inspectors > Versions or ⌃V, then click the + button. You’ll be prompted to give it a meaningful name that helps you identify it later. Click OK. You can access all saved versions, manual or automatic, in the Versions inspector.