File versioning

Something I was reading in another Drawng reminded me that we need an
automatic file versioning system. When implemented, i.e turned ON, would
invoke an incrementing of 'nnn' each time Ctrl-S was executed.

So original file called

filename.cdr.

CTRL-S saves as filename_nnn.cdr, result

filename_001.cdr etc. each time

until versioning is turned OFF.

Of course 'nnn' should be user definable in terms of number of digits,
starting number, a prefix such as

filename_todaysdate_nnn.cdr etc.

Also Under the File menu or similar, the ability to purge versions when a
file is 'finished' with one click of the mouse rather than having to resort
to finding them all in explorer.

Best Regards

Hywel Harris

www.ladybayartglass.co.uk
  • Agreed, Hywel. I always recommend iterative saves. Corel Painter has
    that feature now, but I think it's the first program I've used that did
    it automatically.
    Val P.

    hywelharris wrote:
    > Something I was reading in another Drawng reminded me that we need an
    > automatic file versioning system. When implemented, i.e turned ON, would
    > invoke an incrementing of 'nnn' each time Ctrl-S was executed.
    >
    > So original file called
    >
    > filename.cdr.
    >
    > CTRL-S saves as filename_nnn.cdr, result
    >
    > filename_001.cdr etc. each time
    >
    > until versioning is turned OFF.
    >
    > Of course 'nnn' should be user definable in terms of number of digits,
    > starting number, a prefix such as
    >
    > filename_todaysdate_nnn.cdr etc.
    >
    > Also Under the File menu or similar, the ability to purge versions when a
    > file is 'finished' with one click of the mouse rather than having to resort
    > to finding them all in explorer.
    >
    > Best Regards
    >
    > Hywel Harris
    >
    > www.ladybayartglass.co.uk
    > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    > http://community.coreldraw.com/forums/p/1746/6327.aspx#6327
    >
    • I very much would like to see this feature as well. It seems like it would be a relatively simple feature to add, and it would save a lot of heartache.

      For the most part coreldraw is very good to me, but one real danger with coreldraw files is that you don't realize a file is corrupt until you try to open it. I've found this out the hard way, a few times, in the past half decade working with coreldraw.

      Currently if you work for 8 hours hitting save every hour, if something bad happens (which is rare, but might happen 1 out of 10,000-20,000 times) and corruption occurs, when you go to open the next day you may find that you not only can't open the .cdr file but also you can't open the .bak file; it's rare, but I've seen it happen a few times where the save reports no errors at all but some corruption occurs; as you save again you overwrite the backup file so then you have two corrupt files. And that results in an unnecessary catastrophic loss of many hours of work.

      Now I've taught myself to always use "save as" on any project that has more than a couple hours of work in it, and manually increment the file number. On my monthly project I end up with around 100 versions of the file saved, and manually delete the old versions as space is needed. This insures that at a minimum, I always have the last opened file safe. (I also try to close coreldraw completely and open the file every 4 hours or so to be sure that it opens correctly.)

      With ample hard drive space now available pretty reasonable, I love the idea of a simple built-in safety net such as this proposal (and it protects you not only from file corruption, but also from accidental user-deletions, etc. as you can always go back to the previous version until you decide it's finished and ready to print and purge the old files.)

      • Poking in here to ask a question... Vista now has file versioning built into it...I'm wondering if you folks have looked into that and if there are things there that don't suit your needs. T.
        • Tony, Vista file versioning is one I haven't run across yet. I'll look into it and report back.

          Val P. 

          •  Tony, I'm assuming you are talking about the ShadowCopy system. Turns out that is only available in Vista Business and Ultimate versions. It isn't available in Vista Home Basic or Home Premium. (I use Home Premium.)

            Sorry, that's as far as I go on this one. I'm betting that a lot of Corel's customers will also use the  Home versions. I'm just hoping not too many fall for Home Basic.

            Val P. 

        •  I, too, agree with you.

          When I do retain multiple versions of a file, I have to manually name each one with a (revision) number as part of the file name. I would appreciate the ability to auto-number each revision of the saved file, upon demand (turn numbering on/off).

           

          • Does anyone know if this was ever implemented?

            • Still asking 16 years later. Anyone know if this is implemented?