Introduction To Online Collaboration

In this article, I will talk about the concepts of simultaneous online collaboration using Google Docs and Sheets - multiple people editing the same document at the same time from any location. This is a very powerful modern way of working instead of driving to meetings.

Editing Files On Your Computer

Many of the readers of this article are probably used to working with the Microsoft Office programs Words and Excel on their computers. You have a Microsoft Office program, and you edit a file that resides on your computer. Then you email the file to your colleague(s) and they edit it, change the file name, and send it back to you . They may or may not have Tracked Changes, but in any case, you're pretty soon likely to be awash in files with names like "The Document - draft," "The Document - draft - Martin's Changes" "The Document - Final," The Document - Really Final," "The Document - Final Final."

Pretty soon, you're desperately hunting through your mailbox for that one latest document version.

Modern Online Collaboration

This is where online collaboration comes in really handy. Instead of passing a file around, you work on the same file, are always assured that you have the latest version, and also know that everybody else sees the same version.

This is particularly powerful if two or more people are working on the same document while also conversing using a video or phone teleconference - anyone can change the document as you work, and everybody will see the changes in the document immediately. It may sound chaotic if you're not used to it, but I've been using this method of working for years in industry standardization committee meetings with participants working literally from the other side of the world, and an etiquette develops pretty soon. There is usually one person who is the "current owner" of the document, and that person generally does the typing during the conference call. The other participants kibbitz and suggest changes to the owner; and if the sentence gets complicated, the owner may ask somebody else to type in their suggested change. This works surprisingly well and consensus develops quickly.

To be sure, there are many times when immediate online document composition is not appropriate - private thinking time is required to pen a well-written draft. But even then, it is easy to collaborate with others using the same document. An etiquette that I have successfully used in the past is to have a single owner who is responsible for either the entire document, or individual sections within it. When the document or section owner asks for a review, the reviewers enter their changes as suggestions, and then the owner either accepts the changes, rejects them, or asks for additional clarification.

Doc/Sheet vs Word/Excel

This style of collaboration is available with Google Docs and Sheets and some other apps in G Suite for Nonprofits. Similar functionality is also available with Word and Excel from Microsoft Office 365. While I don't know this for a fact, Google may have been first to offer their tools for free to 501 (c) (3) organizations. In any case, SCORE picked Google few years ago; and I picked Google for Nuevas Sonrisas because of my familiarity with those tools.

Editing/Suggesting/Viewing in Google Docs

Google Docs has a feature that is very useful for collaboratively editing documents. If you have a permission to work with a document, you can choose whether you want to edit the document directly, or whether you want to give suggestions to the author or discuss particular items in the document. On your browser, you make the choice by clicking on the "Edit" icon that is at the right top of the document:

In general, I recommend that you choose "Editing" if you are the document content "owner" (as described in the section on Online Collaboration), or to make minor fixes to typos or spelling. To provide feedback to the owner or discuss previous comments, please select "Suggesting."

If you're unfamiliar with "Suggesting," give it a try - choose it, and then make any change in the document and see how it works.