What is Version Control?

Version control is software that tracks every change in a file.

When we leave the world of WYSIWYG editors like Microsoft Word or Classical Text Editor, we control every bit that is entered into file

Version control keeps track of those changes and create a source history.

The source history allows us to return to any previous state of the text, to observe with precision where contributions were made, and to identify the editor of any contribution no matter how small.

Example of source history

A more complicated example of source history

What is Git?

Git is an extremely popular version control software.

Not only does it record source history, it also works as a collaboration tool through which editors can contributed asynchronously to the cloud, and those changes can be vetted and reviewed.

What are Github and Bitbucket?

Github and Bitbucket are two popular cloud platforms that facilitate collaboration between editors and teams who use Git software.

On using Git for collaboration, see...

http://lombardpress.org/using-a-thoughtful-workflow-to-support-collaboration-on-text-transcriptions/

Dealing with Git comes with a fairly steep learning curve

While using the established Git work-flow is ideal, for those who find its learning curve excessively steep, there are ways we can use intermediary tools to make this curve less steeps.

SourceTree

Source Tree is a popular GUI tools that helps people manage their repositories.

DropBox

A lot of people already feel quite comfortable with Dropbox. We can use the Dropbox team and group settings to give people permission to different Git Directories.

Because these Git Directories/Repositories are in Dropbox, they are synced to computers of other team members who can manage the Git commands on behalf of the rest of the team.