On Mac, users can “ simultaneously” edit documents in the native app, Word 2016 for Mac (again with Office 365 sub). It looked to us like you could only editing in the browser (aka Word Online), but apparently there's more options. Unfortunately, it was pointed out to me that Office 2016 offers real-time co-authoring in the the Word app. Initially, it looked like you could only real-time co-author if using Word Online, but Microsoft has so many support pages that don’t all sound like they were written by everyone on the same page that I wasn’t so sure. You always need to have the document saved within file-sync software (Microsoft pushes OneDrive and SharePoint, but Box and Dropbox work, too). One support page mentions requiring an Office 365 subscription, while another does not. However, it's not easy getting a straight answer, which is where I ran into trouble determining what versions of Word can do what. Word does provide real-time co-authoring. There is where I ran into a frustrating time getting a consistent answer. Given that Word is my preferred app for writing, I looked there first. Google Docs has been around for over a decade, surely others have caught up by now? Office 365 co-authoring This made us curious what the co-authoring experience is like with other applications. So, I’m forced to use Google Docs if we’re sharing a byline (my life is so hard). Another popular file-hosting service, Dropbox, essentially rigged up their own notification solution using the little dot that sticks to the side of Office apps and tells you if someone has a document open immensely helpful!īut, the issue still remains that only one person can be in a document at a time. Returning to Box Drive, it does allow you to lock out others when in a document or spreadsheet, but it’s not on by default so you have to know about the feature. (Google Docs came to be after the company acquired Upstartle in 2006, which had created the web app Writely.) Google Docs was built to provide a web-based app from the start, which allows it to provide an easier real-time co-authoring experience compared to native apps. Google Docs remains far superior when it comes to avoiding collaborative conflicts and co-authoring articles in real time-nothing else offers quite the same experience. It may just be a minor frustration for two people, but what about larger groups that all need to work on the same document? What if they aren’t allowed by office policy or other reason to use Google Docs? This can lead to forked versions if you don’t take the time to ask if anyone else is in a particular document. Our company uses Box for asset sharing, which doesn’t automatically let you know when someone else has a document open.
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