When you ’re collaborating on papers with other people , sharing a folder on a cloud - found memory board system likeDropboxis convenient way to keep everyone ’s copy of those docs update mechanically . But nothing in that system prevents two people from open up and changing a have document at the same clock time . That can lead to version conflicts and confusion .
You could avoid this problem — and make it loose to see who made which changes and when — with a formal translation - control system . team of programmer working on a undertaking often use prick like ApacheSubversion(SVN ) , Concurrent Versions System ( CVS ) , orGitto deal their files . These tools ensure that only one someone can modify a data file at once , rent everyone know who ’s working on a file at any moment , and keep a historic disc of changes so that any earlier variation can be recalled in the future .
But for a lot of projects , a complex version - control organisation and its associated software and repositories are overkill . There is , however , a via media : Those of us who work onTidBITS ’ Take Control ebooks — generator and editors — have over sentence educate a simple manual system , base on Dropbox , that mimics adaptation restraint but requires no excess software system . Here ’s how it works .
Filenames and folders
The first ingredient of our system is the use of two simple-minded folders : Inside any book ’s Dropbox pamphlet , we produce one folder call Checked Out and another call Old .
Our manual rendering control system requires just two folders : When a single file is in Checked Out , only the person who move it there can turn on it . The next individual makes a copy of the file puts the former version on Old .
We stack away manuscript file within those folders using a strict naming convention : A manuscript start with a statute title such asBook - name-1 - jk(where the last two letters are the writer ’s initial ) . The next person to work on the manuscript moves that original filing cabinet into the Old folder , then Option - drags it from there into the Checked Out folder to double it ; he or she then rename the new version with an incremented number and his or her own initial : Book - name-2 - df , for illustration . As long as a file is in Checked Out , no one else equal it . After make any desired changes , the editor move the data file out of Checked Out and back into Old . The next person in the editing string can then repeat the operation .
If you ’re familiar with Dropbox , you might think that renaming files in this way is redundant . After all , Dropbox uphold its own rendering history of each file , complete with the name of the user who saved it . But restoring previous copies requires multiple step on the Dropbox website , and doing so replaces the current version of the file . Keeping our own historical versions makes them well-to-do to work with .
Track changes
We also rely heavily on the change - tracking and commenting feature in our word central processing unit of choice , Nisus Writer Pro(Nisus Software , $ 79 ) . ( ApplePagesandMicrosoft Wordhave similar trailing features . )
So , instead , our function is for each person put to work on a text file to review the changes made by the premature somebody , accept or reject them ( so they ’re no longer give chase ) , and then make any extra changes with tracking still turned on . That mode , except in guinea pig where a propose modification is still under discourse , any version of the written document highlights only those changes made in the most recent writing or editing pass .
With those two cognitive process in place , all of our authors and editors can cooperate with minimal rubbing , be sure their changes never collide , and easily determine when any given change was made . And we can do it all with no exceptional computer software except the Dropbox client and word processor we all practice anyway .
