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Boiler98
 
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Default Multiple People Editing at One Time?

Hello all.

Does anyone know of any Word plugins that would allow multiple individuals
to modify a single document at the same time?

The application could (as I see it) define multiple sections to a single
document. These sections could then be checked out by individuals to modify,
instead of the entire document. This would allow me to work on Section 1
while someone else works on Section 3.

Thanks!
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Jay Freedman
 
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Default Multiple People Editing at One Time?

Although theoretically Word could be designed along the lines you described,
it wasn't. Word doesn't have any kind of partial document locking mechanism
like a database -- it's the whole document or nothing.

You can use separate documents for the sections, and bring them together
into a single document by using IncludeText fields (and RD fields for
constructing a table of contents and index). To date the Master Document
feature is broken and frequently damages documents, so don't use it
(http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm).

Alternatively, you might be able to use a SharePoint server or a version
control system to manage the checkouts.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Boiler98 wrote:
Hello all.

Does anyone know of any Word plugins that would allow multiple
individuals to modify a single document at the same time?

The application could (as I see it) define multiple sections to a
single document. These sections could then be checked out by
individuals to modify, instead of the entire document. This would
allow me to work on Section 1 while someone else works on Section 3.

Thanks!



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Boiler98
 
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Default Multiple People Editing at One Time?

Thanks Jay.

I'll look into the IncludeText and RD fields to see how they work and if we
can use them.

For SharePoint, I just started looking at that earlier today. Our
organization has another tool called ProjectLink which does a lot of the same
stuff, based on what I've learned so far. Do you know of any docs that talk
about all the super cool integration that using SharePoint might buy us?
We do have access to SharePoint as well, but ProjectLink is our little groups
standard way of doing something... probably because the rest of the company
uses SharePoint. -_-


"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Although theoretically Word could be designed along the lines you described,
it wasn't. Word doesn't have any kind of partial document locking mechanism
like a database -- it's the whole document or nothing.

You can use separate documents for the sections, and bring them together
into a single document by using IncludeText fields (and RD fields for
constructing a table of contents and index). To date the Master Document
feature is broken and frequently damages documents, so don't use it
(http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm).

Alternatively, you might be able to use a SharePoint server or a version
control system to manage the checkouts.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.


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Jay Freedman
 
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Default Multiple People Editing at One Time?

Here are some pages about SharePoint features:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv.../features.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusine...oint-tips.mspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/as...425981033.aspx
I'm not a SharePoint user myself, so these are pretty much blind pointers.

I've used ProjectLink, but as far as I'm aware it doesn't allow simultaneous
editing of the same copy of the document, any more than any other solution
would. One person at a time checks out the document, edits it, and checks it
back in. In this regard, it works the same way as SourceSafe or any other
document management system. The only thing I know of that's an improvement
is that you can subscribe to be notified whenever a particular document is
checked in by someone else. There's a lot in ProjectLink concerning reviews
and comments, project management, etc. but not much else to do with editing.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Boiler98 wrote:
Thanks Jay.

I'll look into the IncludeText and RD fields to see how they work and
if we can use them.

For SharePoint, I just started looking at that earlier today. Our
organization has another tool called ProjectLink which does a lot of
the same stuff, based on what I've learned so far. Do you know of
any docs that talk about all the super cool integration that using
SharePoint might buy us? We do have access to SharePoint as well,
but ProjectLink is our little groups standard way of doing
something... probably because the rest of the company uses
SharePoint. -_-


"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Although theoretically Word could be designed along the lines you
described, it wasn't. Word doesn't have any kind of partial document
locking mechanism like a database -- it's the whole document or
nothing.

You can use separate documents for the sections, and bring them
together into a single document by using IncludeText fields (and RD
fields for constructing a table of contents and index). To date the
Master Document feature is broken and frequently damages documents,
so don't use it
(http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm).

Alternatively, you might be able to use a SharePoint server or a
version control system to manage the checkouts.



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