SP2010 workflow to set file version

Hello,

We've set up a document library with a form for item creation, and our own workflows/forms for document submission, review, and approval. We were going to utilize the built-in SP versioning but after some testing (long story) we are looking at setting up a different mechanism to set file versions.

I have two questions related to this:

1. I've seen that people set up auto-incrementing lists to associate with a different list, but is it possible to set up auto-incrementing numbers for each library/list item? In our scenario we'd want to (via a workflow) increment the version number for the item when it is approved, so each item would need its own "counter".

2. Do you all have suggestions on how to tell which version of the file is newest (so we can set up filtering etc.)? Of course we could have the approval workflow set a column value to "Newest" when an item is approved, but that wouldn't do anything for the earlier versions (to set them to "old" or some such thing). The workflow would have to somehow touch those prior versions too to designate them as non-current versions.

Those are the current roadblocks, so any suggestions are welcomed.

cheers /td