svn or mercurial version control of word documents

Question

As far as I know, Microsoft went to some sort of xml-based representation in their most recent version of office. If that\'s really true, then I would assume that version c

Answer 1

Replies to various points or assumptions read here:

• Yes, subversion does a very good job at diffing binary files. For excample, 60 versions of a 30Mb file take 90Mb for one of my documents with lots of pics.
• Yes, Tortoise SVN automatically calls the native MSWord diff and thus, allows you to see the exact differences (including formats) between any two versions, at character level.
• Consider using msWord Track Changes features instead of a posterio comparision, this will also keep track of moves, keep authors, etc. Answers different needs...
• Yes, a docx file is a zipped directory with xml files. Try, just open a docx file with a zip utility or unzip it!

• Consider saving in XML instead of docx, if you want keyword expansion:

• Save your file as .xml instead of .docx; though your file gets much bigger (no longer zipped), you may save space with svn compression, more efficient on text than binaries, I expect.

• Insert your snv keywords (e.g. $Rev$) in the properties of the word document (using File-Info, Properties in the right pane)
• Display the info in your document using fields: Isert-Quick Parts-Document Property, for example

That seems to work for me.

Rodolphe