Chapter 2: A Human Endeavor

“For me, good editing is a… testimony that one’s words are worthy enough to require close attention.”—James McConkey, Nurture for the Damn Ego

“Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.”—Abraham Lincoln

“Writing, in a way, is listening to the others’ language and reading with the others’ eyes.”—Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Woman, Native, Other

Software and reference links for all versions of Word

Accounting and Bookkeeping for Freelancers (University of Alabama)

How to recover a lost Word Document (Microsoft)

Project cost estimation: templates, tools, and more (ClickTime)

Collaborative editing in real-time

There are two main ways to edit collaboratively in real-time:

Use a purpose-built solution such as the one provided by Google Drive and Office 365, in which the document window and discussion window are integrated into a single product and the displayed manuscript updates in real-time as you make changes.

Create a homemade solution, in which you display the document as a Web page and use your own choice of chat software to discuss changes. After each change, save the manuscript again in HTML format, upload it to the Web directory, and refresh your Web browser's window to see the results of the change.

Here's what these methods look like:

Example of a purpose-built solution: Google Drive

Purpose-built software is a moving target; it evolves rapidly, so trying to document its most current iteration is an exercise in futility. Nonetheless, the essential features will remain similar to what you see here.

Example of a homemade solution

In the homemade solution, you have the advantage of being able to use any combination of software you want: so long as you can upload an HTML file to a directory that both you and the author can access, you can collaborate efficiently using this approach.