Version Control in Lectora Online

Version Control allows only one person to work on a shared project (or a part of a shared project) at a time. When other team members try to make changes to the project while it is checked out, they will be warned that the project is already in use. This prevents team members from overwriting each other’s changes. Versioning is made possible through the Check Out and Check In process. When you’ve completed your necessary modifications, it’s a good idea to check in your changes so that you can create a version history of the project. When checking in changes, use the Comment field to provide brief descriptions of your changes. The comments you provide are displayed in the Project History window, along with the project's date and time and name of the project creator – to help you discern between versions. You can restore a project from backed-up versions of the project that you have checked in using the Version Control process. When you restore the project, the restored version becomes the new current version. Additionally, you can restore a previous version to a new project.

To Check Out a Project (or part of a project ):

When you’re working on a shared project, you’ll need to check out a part of the project in order to make changes. When you check out a part of a project, other team members working on the project won’t be able to modify the checked out pages and objects. You can check out an entire project, a chapter, a section, a page or even a single object.

1. Select the part or parts of the project you want to modify. You can specify the whole project by selecting the project level or an individual chapter, section or page.
2. Select the Check Out icon in the Project Explorer bar

Or

Right-click and select Version Control > Check Out.

Parts of the project you’ve checked out will have a green highlight around them in the Project Explorer. If another member of your team is viewing the project, those highlights will appear in red.

To Undo a Check Out:

1. Select the part or parts of the project you want to modify. You can specify the whole project by selecting the project level or an individual chapter, section or page.
2. Click the Undo Check Out graphic on the Project Explorer bar

Or

Right-click and select Version Control > Undo Check Out.

To Refresh a Project's Check Out Status:

1. Click the Refresh Project Checkout Status graphic on the Project Explorer bar.

To Check in a Project (or a part of a project):

1. Select the part or parts of the project you want to modify. You can specify the whole project by selecting the project level or an individual chapter, section or page.
2. Select the Check In icon in the Project Explorer bar

OR

Right-click and select Version Control > Check In

1. From the Check In screen:

1. Use the Comment field to provide brief descriptions of your changes. These comments become part of your project’s history and will help you keep track of the different versions of your project.
2. Enable the Keep Checked Out box if you want to submit your changes but retain the checked-out status. This allows you to keep updating the project without having to repeatedly check it out.
3. Select Check In

Restoring a Project

1. Select Browse or Manage button on the Getting Started tab.

1. The Manage Projects window will appear. Select the project you want to restore from the Shared Projects folder, then click the History button. 

1. The Project History window will open to display a version history of the selected project. Each version of the project appears in chronological order in the Version History table, along with the creation date and time, the creator and any comments provided.
2. To restore a project from a previous version, select Restore Version. 
3. To create a new project from a checked-in version, select Restore Version to Project.

This article last reviewed May, 2025. The software may have changed since the last review. Please visit our Release Notes to learn more about version updates.