Replacing multiple files with a version in the name with a single file with version history

Question

Many users new to Sharepoint don't understand versioning and rather than checking out and updating a file will create a new file with a version in the name, for example

My Document v1.doc
My Document v2.doc
My Document v3.doc

How can I easily replace these files with a single

My Document.doc

With the correct history to allow versions 1, 2 and 3 to be retrived?

Answer 1

Create a new document. Paste in the contents from v1, Save and publish as a major version. Repeat for versions 2 and 3. You'll have the correct content version history but not who and when.

There isn't a method I know of to merge and retain the information. Maybe the more code savvy folks have a way to do it programmatically that will do what you require.

Answer 2

In the Upload Document dialog (when you have versioning enabled), select the "Add as a new version to existing files" and upload new document with the same name. It will create new version.

I haven't tried this with code, but you might be able to do the same in code without having to check out file programmatically, then checn in, etc.