Document co-authoring
WorkZone for Office uses Microsoft Office’s version and document control (WebDAV protocol and URI scheme) to manage multiple users editing a document at the same time.
No check in / check out
There are no check in or check out procedures. A user opens the document in the Microsoft Office application to lock the document and prevents other users from saving their versions of the document on the server. When the user closes the document, the document lock is released and assigned to the next user in line (if any). That user's changes can then be saved to the document which is still locked to all other users.
Saved on the server
The document is edited on a local Microsoft Office application but saved on the server, thereby respecting the document lock.
Document lock expiry
It is not possible to revoke the document lock from another user or take over a locked document from another user.
The document lock is however temporary and will expire after a certain period of time (a timeout period) of no less than one hour, releasing a previously locked document. A locked document that has expired can regain its document lock if the document has not been opened by another user in the meantime.
When a document is opened by a WorkZone user, the document will be locked for saving on the server. The user who opened the document can save the document to the server but all other WorkZone users cannot save their changes to the server.
When other users open the locked document, the most recent version of the document on the server will be opened.
If the user who opened the document has saved his changes, any user who opens the document afterward can see the updates.
Users that already had opened the locked document before the first user had saved the document will not see the changes from the first user in their currently open documents.
When a document is locked by a user, other users can:
- Edit the document and merge the contents when the document is available.
- Open the document in read-only mode
Save the document as a local document
The server document can also be saved as a local document on the local machine. You can edit it locally and then do one of the following action:
- When the server document is available, the local document and the server document can be manually compared and merged by using the Microsoft Office’s Compare functionality.
- The local document can be uploaded to WorkZone as a new document.
When a locked document is closed, the document will be released and becomes available to the next user if the document has been opened by other users. Effectively, the next user takes over the document lock as the document still is locked to all other users. The user now may save the document to the server and close the document.
The document is only released when it is closed. Saving the document to the server will not release the document.
Saving the document as a local document will release the lock.
When the document is released to the next user, any changes can be merged and saved into the document. All added content made to the document is highlighted, enabling the current user to react to the changes if necessary.
Content added or removed from the document by previous users is not protected and subsequent users may remove or add content to the document without restrictions unless prevented so by other Microsoft Office content-protection functionality.
