Expert: Kaylyn Anderson - 8/6/2010

Question
I need multiple writers on a project. I want them all to be able to see the entire document - BUT they must only be able to alter their own section of the document.

What "collaborative writing" solution can do this ? - pref open source

Answer
Dear Gareth,

I ponder as I write. I'm not sure of a program that will do what you want, but I'll tell you what comes to mind.

In order to see and alter documents, you will need a good archive system.

1. Always conduct a "Save As...," Never just an automatic save. You will want to retain a working history. At the end of each business day, each person should save the next revision # or letter to his or her portion of the document.

2. Designate someone in charge of archiving: Avoid doing this yourself. (you don't want to compromise the work, and you will if pressed for time.)

Archiving Process:
1. Have two main files: Work in Progress and Archive

2. Archive is READ ONLY, even to you. No one touches this, no one can add to it: only the archivist. IT can certainly set this up for you so that only the archivist has save rights.

3. The archivist pulls the chapters together into one document with the latest save (for all to READ ONLY).

4. Then, the archivist clears the Work in Progress file and restores the latest work completed, initialed. (The new file should have a form attached (electronically) that shows initials.

5. At the end of the day, the writer should also initial the form and insert the latest revision to it before saving the file in the Work in Progress.

Important:
Work saved to the personal computer is the uncontrolled document!!! The only controlled document is the one saved w/the controlled cover page, initialed by worker and archivist.

I hope this helps you. I used this method in Tech Docs. We had a similar method for software development, too, and it worked extremely well.

Sincerely,

Kaylyn