What did I do with that file?. Review on Microsoft Visual Source Safe

I am a technical writer by trade. There is a misconception that version control is meant to just manage code, but I firmly believe that version control is important for any source documents be they source code or source for books.

At my last job I was able to convince my coworkers of the importance of version control after several mishaps. I was elected to manage the system since I was its main proponent. Although not the most robust version control system on the market I chose to use Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (VSS) for two reasons: it is very easy to manage and we already had a license from our MSDN subscription.

VSS is very easy to admin. A simple GUI tool allows you to add new users, change passwords, and set user permissions. Another GUI client is used to access the files stored within the system.

Files can be added to the system easily using a standard windows dialogue box. Users can configure a number of settings including whether files are deleted at checkin or if readonly copies remain (this was the big one that seemed to be a matter of personal preference - we couldn't agree on a standard for the group. Luckily we didn't have to).

My two favorite features are the search and the reporting. The search allows you to find all files checked out to a specific user. If someone was going away for several days or several weeks this provided an easy way to ensure they had checked in all of their files. The reporting allows you to generate either text files or printed reports of all changes made to a specific file. The report will only be as good as the comments entered at the time of checkin, but with complete comments this type of report provides an excellent starting point for quality assurance people or for other folks interested in knowing what changed since a specific version of the document.

If you need a simple version control system I strongly recommend trying Microsoft Visual SourceSafe.