Deleting an Old Document Version

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated June 10, 2016)

2

If you are using Word to manage different versions of your document (using the Versions feature), there may come a time when you want to delete an old version of your document. This is periodically a good idea, anyway, since each version you save increases the amount of disk space necessary to store your file. To delete a saved version, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Versions from the File menu. Word displays the Versions dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    2. Figure 1. The Versions dialog box.

  2. Using the list of existing versions, select the version you want to delete.
  3. Click on Delete. You are asked to confirm your action; you should click on Yes.
  4. Click on Close to dismiss the Versions dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1851) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is three more than 5?

2016-01-11 10:27:40

Nigel

In Word 2003 (don't ask...) I have deleted a version, but the file size hasn't gone down... Are there any ways to force a proper save of the data?

2015-08-20 13:01:45

Cathy Gunderson

i have two old word docs (saved in word 97-2003) that i tried to delete but the window pops up to say the doc is open in Word so i cannot delete or move it. but it is NOT open in word. what can i do? thank you.

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