Can TortoiseSVN do this?...

[bookeditor]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for a version control system to fit this book editing use case:

Step 1: An author checks in her manuscript.

Step 2: An editor edits the author's manuscript (with Word's "Track Changes" feature on).

Step 3: The author looks at the editor's changes (thanks to the "Track Changes" feature), rejecting some and also adding new text.

Step 4: We want to compare the author's new version (resulting from Step 3) to the author's original manuscript (in Step 1). We want a report of *only* the author's changes and # of words changed (none of the editor's changes in Step 2), since we bill for the new words she adds in Step 3.


If this is possible with TortoiseSVN, how can I do it? If not, what other system(s) can I use?


Thanks for your help!

[andyl]

"Track Changes" is kind of redundant when you're using Subversion. And in the scenario you outline, combining the two may actually make steps 1-3 a lot messier.

TortoiseSVN (and just about any other tool) can't do direct comparisons of versions of Word documents because they're binary files and no one except Microsoft has a perfect Word document reader. When you invoke Diff in TortoiseSVN for a Word document, it's actually telling Word to open 2 files using Word's built-in Compare Documents feature.

Because of this, step 4 becomes a major effort each time you want to do it - to automate it (which you'd want to do, else you'll be spending considerable time doing the accounting on each cycle), you'd need to do some custom scripting/automation of Word itself.

I strongly recommend you look at completely different tool. It may be something that can be wedged into Sharepoint with some custom development work.

[bookeditor]

Ahh okay, thanks so much Andy. I'll consider how to simplify and will look into other tools (can't afford Sharepoint).

[andyl]

If your company qualifies for BizSpark, you can get it a lot cheaper.

[mbooth]

On the other hand, Subversion is very good at diff-ing plain text based formats. Have you considered preparing your manuscripts with DocBook or LaTeX instead of Word?

[bookeditor]

@andyl I just read Microsoft's BizSpark website, and it sounds like one needs to be a tech startup to qualify. Or is it broader than that?

@Mat By preparing, do you mean running the Word docs through DocBook or LaTeX, and *then* comparing them? I've not used those tools before, but I'm open to it!

Thank you again guys.

[mbooth]

@Mat By preparing, do you mean running the Word docs through DocBook or LaTeX, and *then* comparing them? I've not used those tools before, but I'm open to it!

Thank you again guys.

I mean not using Word at all

[andyl]

@andyl I just read Microsoft's BizSpark website, and it sounds like one needs to be a tech startup to qualify. Or is it broader than that?

I honestly don't know what the BizSpark details are. I've seen it mentioned in discussions about small companies & how they get an MS-heavy environment off the ground with limited funds.