Recreate a Document with Several Versions

If you've lost a document with multiple versions but still have the page trees from the previous versions, don't worry! With Scroll Documents and its Add existing page tree feature, you can manually reconstruct the document and its previous versions. This guide will walk you through the step-by-step process to achieve this.

Before You Begin

Before starting, ensure the following:

1. You had a document with multiple versions that has been deleted.

2. You still have the page trees from the previous versions.

3. It's recommended to do an XML backup of your space before proceeding, in case of any unexpected issues. For more information see: Creating a XML Export of a Space

How To Recreate a Document with Existing Page Trees

To recreate the document and all its versions manually, follow the 4 part step-by-step process below.

Part 1: Identify the most recent version

Identify the most recent version of your page trees, which will serve as the base for recreating the document. This version is usually the last Working version.

Part 2: Enable Scroll Documents

It’s time to enable Scroll Documents in the page tree you want to use as Working version:

1. Go to the root page of the most up-to-date page tree within your Confluence space.

2. Click Document toolbox on the Confluence page.

   1. Select Enable Scroll Documents. This will create a new document that includes the root page and its children, effectively making it the Working version.

Part 3: Create a location for all saved versions

Now you need to create a location (a parent page), for all your previously saved and upcoming versions to be stored under:

1. In the Confluence sidebar, under the "Apps" section, click on Scroll Documents to access the Document Manager of the newly created document.

2. In the Document Manager, click Save a version > click Save in the version dialog that appears.

3. Click More page tree actions (•••) for the newly saved version > click Delete .

4. Make sure the boxes “Delete from Library?” and “Delete from Page Tree?” are checked > Next > click Delete.

5. Go to Space Settings > Manage pages > click Reorder.

6. In the reorder page tree, make sure that you can see a page with the name “Versions of…”.
   This is a special page that we need to store existing and new versions of your documentation.

7. If there's already a "Versions of..." page, and it has a number appended to it (e.g., Versions of Product Documentation (1)), delete the old "Versions of..." page without the number and rename the new "Versions of..." page to remove the version number.

Part 4: Recreate previously saved versions

In this last part you’ll learn how to recreate your previous versions using their remaining page trees:

1. Navigate back to the Document Manager.

2. Click More document actions (•••) > Advanced options > Add existing page tree:

   1. Search for the root page belonging to the second most up-to-date version of your page tree (you can also search with prefixes like "(v1)" if used in the original page trees).

   2. Select the root page. In the preview dialog, you should see the root page of the version and its child pages.

   3. Click Next to proceed.

   4. Review the version and prefix information in the Basic and Advanced tabs to ensure accuracy.

   5. Click Save to add the page tree as a version to your newly created document.

3. Open the Confluence side bar and move your recreated version's page tree under the new “Versions of...” parent page.
   Note: It is recommended to store only saved versions under the "Versions of..." parent page. Please avoid storing the page tree of the Working version under this page.

4. Repeat steps 2a-3 for each page tree you want to add as a version to your document.