Collaborate on documents remotely, in real time
Pages, Numbers, and Keynote all make it simple to work with other people
Once, collaborating on an iWork document meant sending colleagues a copy of your file and waiting for it to come back with their changes in it… But it’s different now. Big improvements to iWork for iCloud mean multiple users can work on the same doc simultaneously, whether using a Mac, iPad, iPhone, or even a PC. Here’s how to get the best from collaboration features.
1 All or nothing
You can either share a document publicly — so anyone with the link can open the document and pass the link on — or share with specific people. Sharing with named people is more secure, because collaborators need to sign in with an Apple ID.
2 Feature limitations
Some features are disabled when you share a document. For example, in Numbers you can’t copy or paste sheets; in Keynote you can’t view or edit master slides; and in Pages there’s no way to edit master objects. If you need these features, temporarily stop sharing the doc: Click Collaborate in the toolbar and then the Stop Sharing button. If you shared a link to the doc, that link will still work when you share it again, but if you limited access to invited people, you’ll need to re-invite them.
3 Shrink size
If you plan to collaborate on a large doc, reduce bandwidth by shrinking its size ahead of time (File > Advanced > Reduce File Size). Do this before sharing — the option is not available on shared docs.
4 Recovering files
If a collaborator deletes content by accident, you can recover it. On a Mac, choose File > Revert to > Browse All Versions, and navigate to the last good version. It’s better to do this on a Mac than iCloud.com; while you can recover a previous version there — Tools > Browse All Versions — you can only restore entire old versions. You can’t compare past versions to the current one, or select smaller parts of the doc to recover.
5 Work offline
iWork doesn’t panic if you lose your internet connection. On a Mac it won’t let you make changes while offline, but on iCloud.com, you can carry on and changes will appear to collaborators when you’re back.
6 Check what’s shared
To check what you’re sharing, open iCloud Drive on your Mac (in Finder, choose Go > iCloud Drive). Shared docs have “Shared by Me” after their names. To see who a file is shared with, Ctrl-click it and choose Share > Show People. Here you can also adjust sharing permissions.
7 Check people’s tools
Not everyone can collaborate. Windows users need Internet Explorer 11 or a recent version of Chrome to use iCloud.com. Sharing via email, Messages, or AirDrop provides only a copy of the doc, so lacks real-time collaboration.
8 Check activities
Clicking Collaborate in the toolbar lists current participants. Click the colored dot next to a name to jump to where they’re working. If you spot a colored editing indicator within a doc, click it to reveal the editor’s identity.