It took them long enough but the folks in Redmond have finally made real-time co-author editing part of Microsoft Word. If you’re an Office 365 user and haven’t upgraded to Office 2016, you should hop on that ASAP and if you’re not a subscription user, then this feature alone is worth the cost of an Office 2016 upgrade.
If you’re a Google doc user, you’ve enjoyed the benefits of real-time collaborative document editing for some time but Microsoft pushes the bar a bit higher with their new co-authoring tools; meaning multiple users can edit a document at the same time.
Setting up the co-authoring process is remarkably simple:
STEP 1: Click the Share icon located in the top, right corner, above the toolbar. If you haven’t already saved the document to OneDrive or SharePoint, Word will prompt you to do so.STEP 2: A Share pane will open on the right side of the screen, you can invite people directly and allocate edit or view-only status or click the Get A Sharing Link at the bottom of that pane which you can then send via email or IM. You’ll have the option of generating an edit or view-only link here as well. In all likelihood, the latter option will be easiest to use.
From there, it’s almost too simple in that the co-authoring process begins whenever the other users open the document to edit; meaning, there’s no “start co-authoring” button or link to click.
Word will assign colored flags to each user so you can easily see who is editing content.
Another nice bonus for those using the expanded line of Microsoft Office apps is automatic integration of IM and voice chat options via Skype. Clicking any of the IM or call icons will route the action through Skype if you’re logged in.
Personally, I can’t wait to use this feature on any one of the various documents that typically get shoved back and forth across email with a host of old-school review markup. Everything from contract terms, work orders, programming copy, bios, and more will be easier to complete thanks to this new feature. Simply put, it is so simple to use these tools, there’s zero reason why you shouldn’t if you’re running Office 2016.