How to See Recent Changes & Revision History in Google Docs & Sheets

Do you use Google Docs or Google Sheets for word processing, managing to-do lists, to work on spreadsheets, and perform other office tasks? In that case, you may be wondering how to check the changes you’ve made to the document. We’ll show you how to view recent changes and revision history in Google Docs, Google Sheets, and the Google workspace apps.

Both Google Docs and Google Sheets are very popular productivity apps that are part of Google’s Workspace. Since they are cloud-based and easily accessible on any device, many people use them to collaborate on files for work and school purposes. Whenever you’re working on an important document that’s updated regularly by you, or anyone else you’ve collaborated with, it can be important to keep track of all the edits that have been made to the document.

If you’re switching from a different productivity suite like Microsoft Office or Apple iWork, you may be unfamiliar with how to track changes in Google suite, so read on to learn how you can see the recent changes and revision history in Google Docs and Google Sheets. And because these tricks are based in the web browser, you can use them on any platform with Google Docs and Google Sheets, including Mac, Windows, Chromebook, Linux, or otherwise.

How to View Revision History & Recent Changes in Google Docs

There are two ways to check the version history for a document in Google’s productivity apps. We’ll be covering one of the methods for Google Docs and the other one for Google Sheets, but they both work interchangeably. Let’s get to it:

1. First of all, open the document you want to check version history for in Google Docs. Now, right next to the Help option in the menu bar, you’ll see when the last edit was made. Click on this to open version history.
   
   
2. The version history for your document will now show up on the right side of your screen. All the changes you’ve made will be highlighted in the document too. Here, the revisions are sorted by their dates. Click on it to view older versions. You can click on the triple-dot icon next to a particular version to rename or make a copy of it.
   
   
3. Once you’ve selected an older version from the right pane for viewing, you’ll find an option to “Restore this version” at the top of your document page.
   
   

That’s one way to check all the edits. If you’re unable to see when the last edit was made in the menu bar, it means that no changes have been made to the document.

How to See Recent Changes & Revision History in Google Sheets

Now, let’s take a look at the alternate method for viewing your document’s version history, but this time we’ll be using Google Sheets. Again, this approach will also work on on Google Docs, it’s just a different approach. Just follow the steps below to get started.

1. Open the document and click on the “File” option in the menu bar.
   
   
2. Next, hover your cursor over “Version history” in the dropdown menu and click on “See version history”.
   
   
3. This will list out the version history on the right side of your screen just like the previous method.
   
   

That’s all you need to do. Just like the first method, you can click on any of the older versions and restore it.

Both the methods that we discussed above works across all of Google’s productivity apps and not just Google Docs and Google Sheets.

Bonus: Google Docs Version History Keyboard Shortcut

For quicker access to version history, you can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H while in Google Docs.

Consider this as a bonus method.

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When it comes to document collaboration, checking version history can certainly improve your workflow as all the changes anyone has made to the document can be easily accessed or reversed by restoring an older version of the document, if necessary.

If you’re fairly new to Google Docs and Google Sheets, you may still have some pending Microsoft Office documents stored on your computer. If so, you may be interested in learning how to convert Word documents to Google Docs and continue working on the file online. Likewise, you can convert Excel spreadsheets to Google Sheets easily as well. We have many more Google related tips here if you’re interested in checking them out, or more specific to Google Docs.

Now you know how to monitor all the recent changes made to a document by checking revision history in Google Docs and Google Sheets. Which of the methods we discussed here do you personally prefer? Do you have any similar tips or helpful advice? Share with us your experiences in the comments.