Compare versions and keep a version history

Each time you save a plan, Onplana Schedule keeps that version on your computer. Plan > Version history… lists them, newest first, with what changed each time. Compare any two, keep one as the baseline that every later compare starts from, and export the changes as a change log to send to the people who sign off.

What is free and what needs Pro

Comparing your plan with another file, reading the version list, comparing a kept version with the plan open here and exporting the changes as CSV are free. Comparing two kept versions with each other, nominating a baseline version and exporting the change log as PDF unlock when the app is signed in to an organization on the Pro plan or above. See Unlock the paid features of Onplana Schedule.

Compare with another version

1. Choose Plan > Compare with another version….

2. Compare with which version? offers the versions the app already knows before the file picker: the recovery copy of unsaved changes, the last saved copy as the file is on disk, and the same plan from Recent. Pick one, or press Browse… to choose a file.

3. The strip under the bar says how the finish moved and how many tasks changed, were added or were removed. The chart draws the other version’s dates as each bar’s baseline.

4. Open the Changes view to see every changed task. The other version is only read, never changed.

The strip, the chart and how tasks are matched are described in Compare two versions. The Changes view reads from the plan open here to the other version, in its headline and in its table.

Open the version history

1. Open a plan and save it. Each save keeps a version.

2. Choose Plan > Version history…. You can also open it from the compare strip while a comparison is open.

3. Each row names the date it was kept and one line on what changed since the version before it, for example “2 changed, finish 3 working days later, 48 tasks.” The first version kept says so.

• Compare with this plan opens a kept version beside the plan, as Compare does. Nothing is uploaded.
• When a plan opens and it differs from the last version kept, a line above the chart reads “Since the version kept on” the date, with the counts and how the finish moved. Show the changes opens that comparison; Dismiss hides the line.

Compare two kept versions

1. In Version history, under Compare two versions, choose the Older version and the Newer version.

2. Press Compare these two. The changes from the older version to the newer one show under the pickers, in the same table as the Changes view.

Keep a version as the baseline

Choose a version in Baseline for every later compare. Every comparison in Version history then starts from it, and Plan > Compare with the baseline version opens it beside the plan. When the space set aside for versions fills, the oldest versions go first, never the baseline.

This is not the same as Plan > Set baseline…, which saves each task’s dates, work and cost into the file as Baseline or Baseline 1 to 10. See Set a baseline in Onplana Schedule.

Read why the finish moved

When the finish moved between the two versions, the Changes view says by how many working days and which tasks moved it, with the reason for each: for example “The finish moved 3 working days later, from Nov 10 to Nov 13. It is driven by Pour slab (2 days longer).” It names the tasks on the path to the finish that moved it in that direction. When no task on that path changed, it says the move comes from the change to the working calendar, or that no task on the path changed in the fields compared. When the path itself changed, it names the tasks it ran through in the other version.

Export the change log

In the Changes view, under Export the changes:

• Export CSV… writes every change, whatever the filter shows, with the other version’s value beside yours in each column, ready for Excel. It is free.
• Export PDF… saves the same changes as a PDF, with why the finish moved as its first note. Each before and after pair shares one column, so every heading and date prints in full on A4 or Letter. It needs Pro.

Notes

• Versions are kept in the app’s own data folder on your computer, never beside your file, and nothing is uploaded. A save that matches the newest version adds nothing.
• The app keeps up to 200 versions of one file, and 256 MB across all files. When that fills, the oldest go first, across every file, never the version just saved and never a file’s baseline.
• Clear history… removes the versions kept for the file. The file itself is not changed.
• Version history is in the Windows and Mac apps. The phone and tablet app keeps no versions, though it compares two files from More > Compare with another version.
• A plan opened from Onplana, with no file on disk, keeps no versions.

Related

• Apply a revised file to your plan
• Set a baseline in Onplana Schedule
• Unlock the paid features of Onplana Schedule