Collaborative authoring

摘要

A collaborative authoring application provides an authoring environment in which two or more users can edit a document concurrently. Each user edits a copy of the document, sends updates to a master copy of the document, and receives updates from the master copy of the document. The authoring environment generally inhibits the users from providing conflicting editing instructions to the master copy of the document. For example, each user can generate a content lock about one or more data units within the document. The authoring environment may synchronize content locks automatically and content only at the request of the user.

主权项

1. A method for collaborative authoring of a document at a first computing device, the method comprising:
allowing the document to be viewed and edited by a first user on the first computing device within a collaborative authoring environment; sending a first update from the first computing device to the second computing device indicating that the first user is editing the document at a first location; receiving a second update from the second computing device at the first computing device indicating that a second user is editing the document at a second location; automatically applying the second update to the document on the first computing device; and automatically providing, by the first computing device, a first annotation identifying a name of the second user displayed on the document at the second location, wherein the first annotation indicates that the document is being edited by the second user at the second location.