Collaborative Document Editing

ONLYOFFICE™ Document Editor offers you the possibility to work at a document collaboratively with other users. This feature includes:

• simultaneous multi-user access to the edited document
• visual indication of passages that are being edited by other users
• synchronization of changes with one button click
• chat to share ideas concerning particular document parts
• comments containing the description of a task or problem that should be solved

Co-editing

When a document is being edited by several users simultaneously, the edited text passages are marked with dashed lines of different colors. By hovering the mouse cursor over one of the edited passages, the name of the user who is editing it at the moment is displayed. The number of users who are working at the current document is specified in the left lower corner at the status bar - . To see who exactly are editing the file now, move the mouse cursor over this icon - users' names will be displayed in a pop-up window. If too many users are editing the document, click on this icon to open the Chat panel with the full list of the users.

As soon as one of the users saves his/her changes, the others will see a note within the status bar stating that they have updates. To save the changes made and get the updates, click the icon in the left upper corner of the top toolbar. The updates will be highlighted for you to check what exactly has been changed.

You can specify what changes you want to be highlighted during co-editing if you click the icon at the left sidebar, select the Advanced Settings... option and choose between all and last realtime collaboration changes. Selecting View all changes, all the changes made during the current session will be highlighted. Selecting View last changes, only the changes made since you last time clicked the icon will be highlighted.

Chat

To access the chat and leave a message for other users,

1. click the icon at the left sidebar,
2. enter your text into the corresponding field below,
3. press the Send button.

All the messages left by users will be displayed on the panel on the left. If there are new messages you haven't read yet, the chat icon will look like this - .

To close the panel with chat messages, click the icon once again.

Comments

To leave a comment,

1. select a text passage where you think there is an error or problem,
2. use the icon at the left sidebar to open the Comments panel and click the Add Comment to Document link, or
   right-click the selected text passage and select the Add Сomment option from the menu,
3. enter the needed text,
4. click the Add Comment/Add button.

The comment will be seen on the panel on the left. Any other user can answer to the added comment asking questions or reporting on the work he/she has done. For this purpose, click the Add Reply link situated under the comment.

The text passage you commented will be highlighted in the document. To view the comment, just click within the passage. If you need to disable this feature, click the icon, select the Advanced Settings... option and uncheck the Turn on live commenting option box. In this case the commented passages will be highlighted only if you click the icon.

You can manage the comments you added in the following way:

• edit them by clicking the icon,
• delete them by clicking the icon,
• close the discussion by clicking the Resolve link if the task or problem you stated in your comment was solved, after that the discussion you opened with your comment gets the resolved status. To open it again, click the Resolved caption next to it and select the Open Again option.

New comments added by other users will become visible only after you click the icon in the left upper corner of the top toolbar.

To close the panel with comments, click the icon once again.