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Somewhere in the middle of a dissertation, almost everyone loses a file — or a night's work inside one. A shared folder quietly overwrites a chapter. A single Google Docs round-trip breaks the university template. Two "final" versions drift apart, and no one is sure which one the committee actually has.
After seventeen years editing doctoral work, I have watched these small file problems cost real weeks — and almost none of them had to happen. This is the system I use with my own editing clients, written down so you can run it yourself. No new software, just a handful of habits that keep one clean file moving in one direction.
What's inside — four guides and three templates:
The Version Control Playbook — the one rule that prevents most file disasters, and how to run it
Tracked Changes Without Fear — what all those marks mean, and how to work with them calmly
The 20-Minute Backup System — a backup routine you will actually keep
The Defense-Week File Checklist — what to check before the file goes to your committee or to ProQuest
Chapter Handoff Note (template) — a one-page note that travels with your file each round
File-Naming Cheat Sheet (template) — so the newest version is always obvious
The Dissertation Version Log (template) — one row every time the file changes hands; about thirty seconds a row
Delivered as an instant download, yours to keep and reuse through the whole dissertation.
New here? Start with my free guide, Trading Files Safely → https://www.jhmes.com/dissertation-trading-files-safely. If it helps, the toolkit picks up where it leaves off.
Somewhere in the middle of a dissertation, almost everyone loses a file — or a night's work inside one. A shared folder quietly overwrites a chapter. A single Google Docs round-trip breaks the university template. Two "final" versions drift apart, and no one is sure which one the committee actually has.
After seventeen years editing doctoral work, I have watched these small file problems cost real weeks — and almost none of them had to happen. This is the system I use with my own editing clients, written down so you can run it yourself. No new software, just a handful of habits that keep one clean file moving in one direction.
What's inside — four guides and three templates:
The Version Control Playbook — the one rule that prevents most file disasters, and how to run it
Tracked Changes Without Fear — what all those marks mean, and how to work with them calmly
The 20-Minute Backup System — a backup routine you will actually keep
The Defense-Week File Checklist — what to check before the file goes to your committee or to ProQuest
Chapter Handoff Note (template) — a one-page note that travels with your file each round
File-Naming Cheat Sheet (template) — so the newest version is always obvious
The Dissertation Version Log (template) — one row every time the file changes hands; about thirty seconds a row
Delivered as an instant download, yours to keep and reuse through the whole dissertation.
New here? Start with my free guide, Trading Files Safely → https://www.jhmes.com/dissertation-trading-files-safely. If it helps, the toolkit picks up where it leaves off.