Viewing line-by-line file changes

Line-by-line annotation helps you trace the history of file changes and provides better support for code reviews, audits, and similar processes. Annotation helps you identify new or changed lines between versions, who made the change, when it was made, and the action that caused the change.

Diff the files if you need to compare, accept, or reject differences between file versions. See Viewing file differences.

1. Select a file.

The only Unicode files you can annotate are UTF-8 and UTF-16.

2. Choose Activities > Annotate.

The Annotate dialog box opens.

3. Select a Version to annotate.

  • Latest version uses the latest server version.
  • Historic version uses the selected server version.
  • Timestamp uses the current server version based on the selected date and time.
  • Label uses the version with the selected label. Click Select to search for a label.
  • Latest version in state uses the latest version based on the selected workflow state.
If you annotate a file in a snapshot branch, the Version to annotate field is set to the selected version in the parent branch and the field is read-only.

4. Select a Show changes since option.

Changes are displayed for the version after the selected version and all versions up to the selected version to annotate. For example, if you select to annotate version 10 and select version 5 in this field, annotations are displayed for versions 6 through 10.

  • Historic version uses the selected server version. You can also enter a version. Select All to display changes for all files, including version 1.
If you select All, it can take several minutes to annotate the files if there are many revisions or the file size is large.
  • Timestamp uses the current server version based on the selected date and time.
  • Label uses the server version with the selected label. You can also enter a label. Click Select to search for a label. See Selecting labels.
  • Latest version in state uses the latest version based on the selected workflow state. You can also enter a state.

5. Click Annotate.

A progress indicator opens. When the annotation is complete, the Annotate window opens. See Working with annotate results.