WorldServer stores previous versions of a segment translation, making them available to the reviewer and translator. The history entries store relevant data from the segment, including previous translations, status, and comments. This makes it easy for users to see exactly who created the most recent translation and how it differed from previous translations.

A history entry is created when a segment is changed and then saved. In the Browser Workbench, “saving” means hitting the Save button, not the autosave feature. For desktop translation tools, “saving” means uploading the asset to WorldServer.

The history entry may or may not be created when a segment saved based on the following rules:

• If a segment does not have any translation—that is, its translation type is Non-Translated—no history entry is created. This prevents an empty history record from always being created as the first entry.
• If the current user and task step IDs are the same as the user and task step IDs recorded for the last history entry then a new history entry is not created. For ad hoc mode, only user IDs are compared since there is no task step ID. This rule prevents history entries from being created on each segment save and making segment history unusable.

You can view the history for a segment by clicking an icon to the right of the target segment. The link is shown only if there is history available for this segment:

The Version History for Segment <N> dialog displays:

You can review the history and roll back to any previous history entry by selecting an entry and pressing the Restore Version button. Selecting this button modifies the segment to reflect the selected entry; however it does not save the change back to the asset. The change will only be saved when you click the Save button in the Browser Workbench.

You can also see differences between versions by checking the Highlight changes checkbox:

The most recent version displays differences from the previous one. Here, the "current" version has added the words in yellow and removed those in gray.

History entries follow the same rules as other segment changes as far as the Browser Workbench autosave feature is concerned. That is, history entries are automatically created in the cache when an autosave is performed. However, as with other changes to a segment, the history entries are not made permanent until you manually perform a Save on the asset. This means that if you make some changes that cause history entries to be created and then close the browser, the history entries are stored in the autosave buffer (presuming the autosave interval was reached before you closed the browser). If you reopen the Browser Workbench, WorldServer asks if you want to continue with your previous work or discard the work. If you continue with your previous work, your newly created history entries are available again. If you discard your previous work, your newly created history entries are discarded as well.

When you enable Show Segment Details, by checking the box for it in the Browser Workbench toolbar, a link appears for all segments that have history, letting you display the previous version of the segment. See Show Segment Details.