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Keeping track of document versions can be a hassle in small departments and a real nightmare in large organizations. The problem with much version control software is that everyone on your team has to have it running. If the software is at all difficult or cumbersome, it'll be forgotten before long. That's why NextPage 1.5 will certainly find a following when it launches early next year. The tool integrates with Office apps and works largely in the background, so you'll hardly know it's there.

Ease of use was obviously a central concern for the developers at NextPage Inc., the Salt Lake City-based company that's creating NextPage. There's no server software to load and no IT skills are required. Instead, team members download and install the small NextPage client — and that's all there is to it. NextPage communicates with the company's central server to store version information, so there's nothing to run on your company's servers.

The only place you'll see NextPage is in your system tray, where you can click on the application's icon to set your preferences. That's because NextPage integrates with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, creating a new pulldown menu in each. With it, you can tell NextPage to track a document and see a document's version history.

The graphic version history is one of NextPage's best features. Call it up and you'll get a visual representation of all the versions of your document. You can see which version you e-mailed to other people, which version they returned, and when separate versions were merged. At a glance, you'll know every change that was made to a document.

You'll get more out of NextPage if everyone on your team is using it, but it isn't necessary for basic tracking. The app can still keep track of versions received from others even if they don't use NextPage. But if everyone on your team is using it, NextPage will alert you when you don't have a current version-even if you didn't know the document had been changed. Imagine that you and your boss have been working on a document before sending it out to a client. If you go to e-mail that document to your client, using Microsoft Outlook (the only e-mail client supported by NextPage), and your boss has a more current version, NextPage will open a pop-up window alerting you that the version you're e-mailing isn't the most up-to-date one.

NextPage will even track documents correctly if you rename them. You don't need to worry that you'll lose your version history when you change a name.

If this has you ready to try NextPage, you'll need to apply, at the moment. The product is currently in beta and will launch in the first quarter of 2005. Business users can apply to join the beta program on the Web site. The beta will expire when the standard version is released. Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but it will follow an annual subscription model, with companies paying per user. There will also be a 30-day free trial once the product launches.

NextPage's graphic view shows all the versions of a document, including which version you e-mailed to other people and when versions were merged.