SharePoint page difference visualization for versioning

Versioning on list items and document library files works well, but versioning on pages has always lacked something in my opinion. The description of what changed wasn’t always helpful if you were trying to get back to a version of a page prior to changes. Now with the SharePoint page difference visualization feature in version history, it’s easy to see what version you need to restore. Here’s how it works…

Here’s a version of our SharePoint Migration page the way it looks right now:

To look at the page versions for this home page, I go to Site Content > Site Pages, and then click on the vertical ellipsis to show the version history for Home.aspx:

Much like you’re used to seeing in all other version history, you have a list of all the versions, the version number, and when it was last published:

In this example, I scrolled down to version 75 and clicked on the date/time link. Instead of just getting a short description of the change, I see a copy of the page and the way it looked back on that date:

And if I wanted to make that version the most current one, I would click on the version dropdown and select Restore:

This is a great update for people who are responsible for page updates, in that they can get back to a prior version if something goes wrong. It’s also good for times when someone inadvertently updates a page and the change needs to be rolled back.