Can Two People Edit A Synced Document At The Same Time?

[franklinjamescook]

I'm using BTS to work on MS Word docs on a Mac. If I and another collaborator(s) open and edit a document on the shared folder simultaneously, what happens? 

[Harold Feit]

The one that saves last gets their version as the main version.

[franklinjamescook]

Thanks so much Harold. I take your reply to mean, as well, that both users' edits are saved complete and intact, correct?

 

It's confusing to me because both User A & B at first would be editing, simultaneously, what might be called Version 1 of a document. When A closes his or her document, that creates Version 2 (the new main document). Then when B closes his or her document, that creates Version 3 (a subsequent new main document). So let's say A deletes a paragraph before saving (creating Version 2 without the paragraph) and B edits that paragraph, the one A has deleted (creating Version 3 which has edits to a paragraph that was deleted in Version 2). When B saves (Version 3), what becomes of the deleted paragraph and its subsequently edited content (because it seems to me that it can't be both deleted in Version 2 and edited in Version 3)? In other words, if B's edits "undo" something A has already edited, but A saves the document first, what happens?

 

Whew! I hope that's clear.

[Harold Feit]

The short version of what's going on is that each machine in that situation has its own working copy of the file that it saves its edits from. ALL the edits from whoever saves last get applied to the document and all others either get completely ignored or stored in the .syncarchive folder.

[franklinjamescook]

Oddly enough, that makes sense. I appreciate your helpfulness.

 

FJC

[franklinjamescook]

If a person is already editing a document and another person goes to open it, are either or both of them notified that the document is being edited by two people?

[Harold Feit]

Probably not.

[goli]

Hey there.

 

You could try this one:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/use-a-shared-workbook-to-collaborate-HP010096833.aspx

 

 

Microsoft integrated a mechanism for concurrent access to those documents.

This setting avoids temporary edit lock files Excel usually creates ("~$file.xlsx" if the original is "file.xlsx") and introduces kind of "current user cursor" to the content of an opened file. And it slightly changes how hard Excel holds file locks.

 

I'm not completely sure if it really works, but that since this is the way to go to have concurrent access on SMB based file shares I would expect this to work with btsync as well.

A first small test shows that btsync synchronizes every time I hit the "save" button.

Tomorrow I'll access the very same file in the same btsync share on another computer in my office while excel on my home computer accesses the file, too.

 

I'll keep you posted if it really works.

 

Regards,

Stephan.

[goli]

Hey there.

 

 

I checked it today, and it works nicely. Just switch the Excel file into the concurrent access mode. Then the lock file isn't created and Excel doesn't hold file locks any longer. And additinally, Excel scans the source file every now and then (you can configure that, minimum is every 5 minutes) and merges changes if possible. If there are changes that cannot be merged easily, a popup will ask you what to do.

 

And you even have tooltips indicating which other computer caused what change to the document. Pretty nice. It's not realtile like Google Docs can do, but it's usable.

 

So: As long as you stick to Excel and Word, this feature does exactly what you want.

 

Regards,

Stephan.

[franklinjamescook]

I think I found the function to which you're referring in Excel (under "Tools" > "Share Workbook" > check the box "Allow changes by more than one user at the same time"). Correct?

 

But, I'm using MS Word, and I don't see the equivalent function, under "Tools" or anywhere else. An Internet search on the key words links only to references for Excel. Perhaps this functionality does not exist in Word?

 

Help?

[goli]

Hey there.

 

Seems you're right: Co-Authoring only works with excel as per-file communication. Word requires either SkyDrive or Sharepoint.

Maybe this is something for the Wishlist thread? I think this would be a pretty nice feature if was integrated in the yet to come enterprise version of btsync.

 

Regards,

Stephan.

 

[edit]

That's basically the Sharepoint help document concerning co-authoring.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/document-collaboration-and-co-authoring-HA102772333.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA101812148

Might be helpfull to be posted to the wishlist thread, too.