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School of Medicine IT

Revisions – How to Undo Changes

Revisions is a built-in version control system for pages that automatically save snapshots of your content as you work. This feature allows you to track changes, compare different versions, and revert to an earlier state of your page. Each time you manually save a draft, update a page, or publish new content, WordPress stores a snapshot.

Revision history is only available for Pages. Posts, Events, Profiles, and other content types do not store revisions.

When to Use Revisions

Revisions are especially helpful when:

  • You want to undo an accidental edit.
  • You made changes that didn’t work out and want to revert to the previous version of the page.
  • A formatting issue appears and you need to trace what changed.
  • You want to compare wording or structure between drafts.

Limitations

  • Revisions only exist on Pages (not Posts, Events, Profiles, Cells, etc.).
  • Restoring a revision replaces all page content – there is no partial restore.
  • Restoring a past revision replaces the current content and discards any newer changes.
  • Media files, menu changes, or plugin-managed content (e.g., Cells) are not included in revision history.

How to Access Revisions

  1. Open the page you want to edit.
  2. In the right-hand sidebar, look for the Publish panel.
    • If revisions exist, you will see a count (e.g., “Revisions: 2”).
  3. Click the Browse link to open the revision viewer.

Screenshot highlighting the Revisions option when editing a page.

Comparing Revisions

When you open the Revisions screen, WordPress displays a side-by-side comparison of two versions of your page, showing exactly what changed between them. This comparison is shown in HTML so you can clearly see structural updates as well as text edits.

The revisions screen with the slider, added and deleted content and the "compare any two revisions" option highlighted.

Use the slider at the top of the screen to move backward or forward through the page’s revision history. As you slide between versions, WordPress highlights changes:

  • Green indicates content that was added.
  • Red indicates content that was removed.

You can compare any two non-sequential revisions by checking the box labeled Compare any two revisions.

Hovering over each revision point in the slider will display who made the change and when it was saved, helping you track the edit history across multiple editors.

Screenshot of the revisions slider showing the author, date, and time a revision was made.

Restoring a Previous Version

Once you find the version you want to restore:

  1. Click the Restore This Revision button.
  2. WordPress will replace the current version of the page with the selected version.
  3. You can still undo the restore later because restoring creates another revision.

Autosaves

WordPress periodically autosaves content as you work. Autosaves appear in the Revisions list and can also be restored if needed.