How we share documents

Collaborating on documents used to mean sharing drafts over email. These days, we have more streamlined solutions for working together. We asked our community how they collaborate on documents. Do you share a Google Doc? Do you use GitHub or a similar open source platform? Or do you do something else?

Robin Blank uses a mix of platforms:

It depends on what I'm working on. I collaborate in different ways depending on the project and the person I'm working with. For some things, I use Microsoft Office 365 on the Web and Teams. It works well for what I need to do with it.

For other projects, I use Google Docs. I love that you can have multiple people working on the same document at the same time, and everyone can see what everyone else is doing. That makes it really easy to quickly create, update, and edit a document together. We usually combine this with a video call, even if it's audio-only, so we can discuss what we're doing while we do it. 

Jim Hall also uses Google:

I use Google Docs for most of my document collaboration. For example, I write a lot of articles on Technically We Write and elsewhere. I often write my document using Google Docs. When it's ready for submission, I just share the document with the editor. You can control access, such as giving full editor control or limiting it to just viewing the file. 

Katie Sanders adds:

I've been working remotely and asynchronously for years now. Google Docs has been the most reliable tool for me – I love that I can control if someone can edit, comment or just view my work. It allows my colleagues and/or clients the freedom to collaborate with me on a document while I maintain some level of control. I can always go back and see every change that's been made or comments added. As an editor, I certainly prefer receiving Google Docs over Word documents.

Seth Kenlon prefers code collaboration tools like Git:

I interact a lot with Git for asynchronous collaboration. The host (such as GitLab, GitHub, Codeberg, or self-hosted) depends on the person I'm working with.