Working with the Commit Process, Page Versions and the Allow Others to Edit/Edit All Pages Feature

Everything you do is automatically saved as you author, but sometimes you want to save for special reasons

Committing a Page can be used as a Save As function as you work.

For example, you might author a page to a certain point and decide that before making further changes you'd like to save a Version.

Commit also checks the Page in so other authors can choose to Edit it.

The Commit button is located below the Stage, in the lower right corner:

 

By default, when you add a Page it is checked out to you so you can work on it. Only one author can work on a Page at a time.

As you work, you’ll see the Saving/Saved messaging as every update you make gets saved.

At any time, you can choose to Commit the Page, which:

  • Checks the page in so other authors could choose to edit it.
  • Saves a Version of the page that you can restore into your project at any time.
  • Updates the Thumbnail for the Page in Cards view on the left-side panel. The thumbnail is a screen capture of the page at its start, so it will only show elements that are on the page at 0 seconds or which have Show transitions starting at 0 seconds.

When you commit a page you'll be shown a Comment panel to help you track critical information about what you were doing or working on:

 

After a Page is committed, the bar above the Stage changes.

It displays the avatar of the last person who Committed it as well as when the Commit took place.

It will also show an Edit and a Duplicate button:

 

You need to select the Edit option in order to make further changes. This also checks the page out to you.

The Duplicate option allows you to create a copy of the page in the same Project. It will be added as a new last page in the structure.

Restoring a Version of a Page

You can restore page versions back into your Project at any time.

To restore a Version of a Page back into your project:

  1. Select the Page tab.
  2. Select the Versions sub-tab.
  3. Select the Version on the list and a panel will open:

 

The Preview Version option opens a Current Page Preview of the page so you can view it.

The Restore a Copy option adds a copy of the page Version to your Project’s structure. The Version remains stored on the Versions list as well.

You can only edit a Version by restoring it, you cannot edit a Version directly from the Versions list.

Check in (allow others to edit) or edit all pages at once

You can check in all pages in a Project, Module or Learning Object in a single step.

The process is different than using Commit for individual pages in that it only changes the check in/edit status of the pages, it does not create new thumbnails and Versions of the pages.

It does save time if you need to allow others to edit the pages or need to have edit access to them all yourself, compared to commiting every page individually.

NOTE: This option is only available when you have the left-side panel in List view.