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History Lost after converting to multi-file document

I recently combined three files (word, excel, and power point) into a multi-file document.

After they were all combined into a multi-file document, I checked the History.  The history shows that the first revision is the first instance of creating the multi-document file.

Seems like I lost the history of the individual edits of each document.

Any way to recover this?  Or is this by design?

Parents
  • The multifile document is a document object just like any other document. It has only one set of properties and history. Any and all files attached to that object share the same set of metadata. If you move of copy files from other documents into a multifile document then their original metadata will not be saved in the multifile document. If you change a single file document to be a multifile document it should keep the original metadata and history, but any additional files will not get separate metadata.

    Your original documents might still be in your vault - possibly as deleted documents. You can Undelete those documents to get the original back if you have not already destroyed them.

    If you need to keep individual metadata and yet tie several documents together you should look at creating document collections.

  • Hmm... So before the documents get converted to multi-file documents, they get deleted first.  Good to know.  I found the documents in the deleted items.  I undeleted them.

    I also created document collections as you suggested.  However, while in the view, the files are listed inside the document collection as well as separately.  So it appears that there are two documents of the same name: one inside the collection and the other one not in the collection.

    Thank you again for your answer.

Reply
  • Hmm... So before the documents get converted to multi-file documents, they get deleted first.  Good to know.  I found the documents in the deleted items.  I undeleted them.

    I also created document collections as you suggested.  However, while in the view, the files are listed inside the document collection as well as separately.  So it appears that there are two documents of the same name: one inside the collection and the other one not in the collection.

    Thank you again for your answer.

Children
  • There is not 2 documents when using a document collection. It is just shown in two different places. Just as if you have different Views for lets say Invoices and you set up one View to show invoices grouped by month and another to show invoices grouped by customer.

    A Document Collection is just a new object having links to each member of that collection. The documents themselves do not get copied or otherwise changed.

    And documents do not necessarily get deleted when you put several documents into a multifile document. Depending on how you do it you could have the file copied from the original document into the multifile document leaving the original document as it was. However, most people would want to remove the original document after having copied the file and so they delete it. When doing so, they also delete the metadata belonging to the original document.