Article Versioning in BoldDesk helps teams track, review, and manage changes made to Knowledge Base articles throughout their lifecycle. Every meaningful content change is recorded as a version, allowing authors and reviewers to understand what changed, when it changed, and restore earlier versions if needed.

This feature is essential for maintaining content accuracy, collaboration, and auditability in both public and internal Knowledge Bases.

Check out this video tutorial.

Use Cases

Article versioning is useful when you need to:

• Track edits made by multiple contributors
• Review changes before approving or publishing articles
• Compare content revisions during reviews
• Restore previous versions after incorrect updates
• Maintain an audit trail for Knowledge Base content

How Article Versioning Works in BoldDesk

BoldDesk automatically creates a new version of an article whenever:

• The article content (Title or Description) is edited
• The article status changes to Published or from Published to another status

What is not Versioned?

The following changes do not create a new version:

• SEO metadata
• Tags
• Category or Section changes
• Visibility settings

This ensures version history focuses on content changes only.

Types of Article Versions

BoldDesk maintains two types of versions for each Knowledge Base article:

• Major version
• Minor version

Major Version

A Major Version is created when an article is published.

• Format: v1.0, v2.0, v3.0

• Visible in the Customer Portal

• Represents officially released content
  

  
  
  

Minor Version

A Minor Version is created whenever content is edited while the article is in Draft or Review status.

• Format: v1.1, v1.2, v2.1

• Visible only in the Agent Portal

• Used for internal drafting and review
  

  
  
  

View Version History

The following are the steps to view the version history:

1. Open the Knowledge Base module.

2. Navigate to the required article.

3. Select the Revisions tab.
   

   
   
   

The Revisions tab displays a chronological list of all major and minor versions of the article.

Compare Article Versions

Version comparison helps identify exactly what content changed between two versions. The following are the steps to compare versions:

1. Open the article and go to the Revisions tab.

2. Click the More options icon for a version.

3. Select Open to view the comparison.
   

   
   
   

Comparison Behavior

• Added content is highlighted.

• Removed content is clearly indicated.

• Comparison is read‑only.

• You can switch between previous and next versions using the version selector.
  

  
  
  

Restore an Earlier Version

BoldDesk allows restoring older versions to correct mistakes or revert unintended changes. Agents must have Restore Version permission enabled in the Knowledge Base module to be able to perform this action. You can restore a version from either of the options below:

• Restore directly from the Revisions tab.
• Restore from the Version Comparison view.

Restore from the Revisions Tab

• Open the article.

• Go to the Revisions tab.

• Click the More options icon on the version to restore.

• Select Restore.

• Confirm the action.
  

  
  
  

A new Draft version is created from the restored content.

Restore from the Comparison View

• Open a version comparison.

• Click Restore Version.

• Confirm the restore action.
  

  
  
  

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can I restore the currently published version?
   No. Only previous versions can be restored.

2. Are draft changes visible to customers?
   No. Only published (major) versions are visible in the Customer Portal.

3. Does restoring a version overwrite the Knowledge Base article?
   No. Restoring creates a new Draft version and preserves the existing version history.

4. Can I compare more than two versions at once?
   No. Version comparison is supported one version at a time.

5. Which fields are included in version comparison?
   Only Title and Description are compared.

6. Do changes to tags, SEO metadata, categories, sections, or visibility create versions?
   No. Those changes do not create new versions.

7. When is a major version created?
   A major version is created when the article status changes to Published.

8. Why can’t I delete an unwanted draft version from the history?
   Draft versions cannot be deleted because BoldDesk retains all versions for audit trail completeness.

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