Just because it has the same name doesn’t mean Word 2010 has the same ‘version’ feature.
Since Word 97 there has been a useful ‘versions’ feature which lets you save different variations or snapshots of a document within the single file.
For no apparent reason this feature was summarily dropped in Word 2007. The only explanation we’ve heard is that it was ‘too hard’ to put multiple versions into the new ‘docx’ format. That’s strange since the more modular XML structure should have made it easier, not harder. Whatever the reason, a useful feature of Word was dropped in Word 2007.
In Word 2010 ‘versions’ is back, or at least that’s what Microsoft would like us to believe. A feature with that name is in Word 2010 – but just because it has the same name doesn’t mean it’s the same feature.
As you can see in this Office-Watch.com article, versions in Word 2010 is quite different. Now ‘versioning’ just exposes the auto-save option that’s been in Word for years.
The snapshots aren’t stored in the same file and there’s no way to explicitly save a version/snapshot. All the ‘versions’ are removed when you close the document.
It’s not a true versioning feature that Office users are accustomed to. Microsoft hopes to fool customers, especially corporate customers, into buying Word 2010 by using an old name for a new feature.
