If you’re reading this, I assume you’re already aware that there’s a new way of working – collaborating online. If you’re not yet equipped to take advantage of these new ways of working, then this article is for you.
The Document Is Just a Name
The most obvious difference between old and new ways of working is that where in the past each member of a team would have had their own personal copy of a document, these days it’s just a name document. Instead of starting with slightly different versions of the same document and having to find a way to reconcile the differences, everyone contributes to a single shared document and everyone gets to see the changes made by each person – which is great for collaborative editing. In the past, this type of collaboration would have been difficult and/or non-existent.
Changes Are Just Changes
Another big difference between old and new ways of working is that where in the past each version of a document would have been a complete rewrite – with no shared changes – in today’s world, changes are just changes. Everyone contributes to a single shared document and everyone benefits from the changes made by each person. Previously, this would have been difficult to impossible without some kind of version control system in place – which most businesses now employ for editing purposes – to prevent cycles of rewrites.
It’s All About The Communication
A big advantage of the new ways of working is that it makes communicating changes easy and quick. Instead of sending multiple emails with versions of a document embedded in them, everyone can just look at a single file and know what changes were made. Changesets are just a thing of the past – in fact, they’re almost obsolete. The beauty of today’s collaborative editing environments is that they make everyone’s input visible to all. This means that there’s no more arguing about who changed what – because there’s only one version which can be changed by anyone at any time.
These tools eliminate the need for multiple versions of a document that get progressively worse as more people edit them. Instead, you can just keep sending the document around until everyone is happy with it.
All Editors Are Equal
The biggest advantage of collaborative editing is that it doesn’t matter who writes what in a given document. Anyone with editorial rights can contribute and anyone with formatting rights can format it. This means that even if you have a long document with lots of content, anyone can take a look at it and see everything that was included. In the past, this would not have been possible without some kind of legal agreement or someone with editorial rights standing over each contributor’s shoulder – which meant that only certain people could edit a certain type of document without risking legal action against them.
Final Takeaway
The bottom line is that these new ways of working are incredibly beneficial to everybody involved. Old habits are hard to break, but switching to a new system makes everything much easier and more enjoyable. The sooner you adapt, the better – not only will you be able to take advantage of all these new collaborative tools, but you’ll also be able to work with anyone and anything without a single issue.