What is best way to view a prior version?

Hi there,

We are using RSC 3.1 for all our RH7 projects for multi-author support as well as change control.

We have a requirement where we may have to "view" a prior version of a document (not revert or roll back to it, just see what a document said as of a specific date versus what it says now). Essentially, we want to get a "snapshot" of a document at the specific point in time in the past. I thought we would just use labels to identify specific releases (e.g., draft, pilot, rev A, rev B, etc.), whihc does work great to identify which version corresponds to which release.

I can "view" the htm file through the history view, however, it is the html code that I see, and not the formatted htm page itself. I can also view the differences, which is basically a change abstract of the html code. However, I can't figure out how to actually view the the earlier version of the document as the user's would see it without rolling back (reverting), which of course then replaces the current version...which we cannot have.

So tried reading the RSC online help documentation and got really, really confused. It reads like my atmospheric sciences professor's lecture notes back in college! But I did begin to suspect that my solution may lie in either "tags", "branches", or "pinning", but I don't understand how these are used and which would be best suited for our requirements.

I'm hoping someone has used RSC 3.1 for similar situations and can 1) explain the differences/interaction between tags, branches, pinning, and lables in plain English and 2) recommend some best practices for setting this up and/or how to view the older versions of the documents without overwriting the current. Or, if anyone can point me toward some additional documentation on this subject, I would greatly appreciate the education.

Thanks!

-Kristen