Test 3 Collaboration

How easy is it to work with others?

Google Docs, Microsoft Office and iWork all let you share a document with colleagues. Depending on settings you grant, anyone you share the document with can edit simultaneously and see each other’s changes reflected in their own view of the document in real time. In each case, the owner of the file can grant participants full editing rights or just the ability to read it.

The works-in-progress are hosted in the cloud, but Microsoft and Apple also allow participants to edit using their installed apps if they prefer not to work through a browser. In our tests, the browser-to-app changes happened every few seconds using Microsoft Office, but instantly in iWork.

LibreOffice doesn’t yet offer synchronous editing, but the developer is working on LibreOffice Online, a web port of the suite. This was announced in 2011 but has yet to emerge.

All of the suites support change and revision tracking.