Collaborative editing involves multiple people contributing to a text document or code. It can be done simultaneously using online word processing programs or sequentially by passing the document between editors. Collaborative editing allows for different perspectives, catching errors, and tracking changes in a single document.
Collaborative editing is a method of editing in which more than one person contributes to the editing process of a text document or lines of computer code. In many cases, editors work together on the same document simultaneously using word processing programs that allow multiple users to access and edit a single document over the Internet. In other cases, the author of a document passes the document to one editor, who passes it on to another, until more people have contributed to the document. Many word processing programs have a feature that allows contributors to track changes made to a document separately from all other contributors’ changes. The original writer, then, is able to see what changes each contributor has made to the document.
Simultaneous collaborative editing of a document allows contributors to make and discuss changes in real time. In some cases, this simply involves a group of editors sitting around a table editing a document. This is rarely practical, however, so simultaneous collaborative editing tends to involve editors working with an online word processing program that allows all contributors to make and discuss changes. Each member of the collaborative editing process is usually able to see what contributions others have made. The main disadvantage of simultaneous collaborative editing is that all collaborators must coordinate their schedules to work on a document simultaneously.
However, collaborative editing doesn’t have to be simultaneous. In some cases, each editor finishes his contribution and passes the document, usually in digital format, to the next editor. In others, the document is still available on the Internet for many people to edit, but the contributors don’t all edit it at the same time. This collaborative editing method eliminates the need for extensive planning. It also makes discussion between editors a little more difficult and less straightforward process.
There are many benefits to collaborative editing, particularly when it relies on editing a single document online. Different editors can provide different points of view, giving the writer a better idea of how different people will react to his writing. Groups of editors are also more likely to catch small errors than a single editor. Editing a single document and tracking all changes eliminates the need to track multiple versions and drafts of a given document. All the suggested changes and the different versions are available in the same document, so there is little risk that the suggestions will be lost or that important changes will not make it to the final version.
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