Our Verdict
There are plenty of ways tokeep raceway of change made to a text document . you’re able to use the track - changes tool built into your word central processor ( assuming it has them ) . If your motive are more advanced , especially if you ’re collaborating with others , you may use a advanced version - control organisation such asGithub , Subversion , CVS . Or you could use a dedicated utility such asKaleidoscope(which can equate documents , look-alike , and even folders ) .
But if all you really want to track are change to plain - schoolbook or intelligence - processing documents , you have another simpler option : Draft Control(Mac App Store link ) . It ’s dead - wide-eyed to use : You add together the document you need to get across to Draft Control ’s My Documents list ( either by penetrate on the + Document button or dragging it into the Draft Control window from the Finder ) . Thereafter , any sentence you save the text file , Draft Control will take a shot of that reading ; in its preview windowpane , it color - computer code all additions to and deletion from the previous rendering . If you require , you could give those version descriptive label ( instead of the app ’s default prison term - stamps ) . you may also organize them into leaflet within the Draft Control interface . ( Those organizational change do n’t roll over to the OS X file - scheme . )
Draft Control
Should you ever need to range back to one of those previous versions , you may justly - press the document and select Export This Version of the Document . If you ’re exchanging versions of a text file with another writer or editor , you may sweep those average variation into Draft Control and hold back the differences there . you may also tell Draft Control to take version snapshots on a schedule ( every 10 transactions , say ) .
The public-service corporation is compatible with a bunch of different discussion - processing formats , let in Word ( .doc , .docx ) , Pages ( .pages ) , OpenOffice and its variants ( .odt ) , Scrivener ( .scriv ) , Mellel ( .mellel ) , and TextEdit ( .rtf ) , as well as unmixed text edition ( .txt , .md , .html , and so on ) . you’re able to also sync papers - changes via iCloud , if you work on more than one machine .
Draft Control is uncommitted as a gratis download from the Mac App Store , but that free version tracks only one document at a clip . If you want to give chase more than one physician , you ’ll have to pony up $ 20 as an in - app purchase . But even then , if you edit oodles of text documents and need to keep track of sequent conscription , Draft Control is a super - handy , single - purpose utility that belongs in your redaction toolkit .
This critical review is part of Macworld’sGemFest 2014 . Every weekday from July until September , the Macworld staff will employ the Mac Gems blog to briefly treat a standout free , low - cost , or outstanding - note value curriculum . you could view a listing of this year ’s apps , updated daily , on our handy GemFest chart , and you could visit the Mac Gems home page for preceding Mac Gems reviews .
require to stay up to date with the late Gems ? you could follow Mac Gemson Twitteroron App.net . you could also pledge to the Mac Gems RSS feed .
