Update a Document and Keep Older Answers Accurate

To update a document, add the changed file to the same Brain again, from the same place on your computer. Elephas adds it as a new version of the existing document, and answers you got earlier keep citing the exact version they used.

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Before you start

• Save your changes to the original file, in the same folder and with the same name you added it from.
• Open the Brain the document is in. Updating works per Brain.

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Steps

For a web page, add the same address again with Add › Web Page…. If the page changed, it becomes a new version. See add web pages.

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How it works

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Elephas matches by where the file came from

Elephas remembers where each file was added from. If you saved the new version under a new name or in another folder, Elephas treats it as a separate document. Add it, then remove the old one if you no longer want it in your answers.

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Older answers stay accurate

Each version is kept as its own fixed copy. Nothing is edited in place.

• New questions search only the newest version.
• Earlier answers keep citing the version they were written from. Elephas keeps that version’s text for them, so an old citation shows the passage as it was when the answer was given, even if that paragraph has since changed. If a passage can no longer be shown, the citation says Support passage changed or is unavailable rather than pointing at different text.

That way a chat about last month’s draft of a contract still shows what last month’s draft said.

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If the new version fails

If the new version cannot be read, Elephas discards it and keeps the current version. Your document stays ready to ask, and nothing in your earlier answers changes.

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Elephas does not watch your files

Elephas reads a file when you add it and never checks the original again on its own. Editing the original does not change your Brain until you add it again.

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Troubleshooting

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