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Versionate - Your Documents...Yes
July 13, 2007

Remember back when we used the sneaker-net and colored pens to "collaborate" on documents? That worked nicely for local efforts, but now we are collaborating across the country and around the world. How do you collaboratively author a document when the four authors are all in different states?

One solution is to use an online word processor like Zoho Writer, previously reviewed here, that can provide versioning and document sharing. For larger groups, or a more open editing environment wikis are a great option though most are designed around site creation and not documents. Now there is a new player in the field that combines the document-creation focus of an online word processor with the scaleable editing capabilities of a wiki.

Versionate is probably best described as a wiki for your documents. Have a Microsoft Word document you need to share for collaborative editing? A few simple clicks on your Versionate site and your Word document is uploaded to online storage and ready for sharing/editing. The free version provides a generous 500MB of online storage (max single file 5MB) for files from Word, Excel, OpenOffice and even PDFs and images. While the free version doesn't provide access control (user level security for each file as in Joe can read, but Sally can edit vs all or none) you can have an unlimited number of users subscribed to your site to edit any documents you allow.

The site has a very nice user interface with easy to use document controls and toolbars. Documents are fully versioned as edits are made; any version can be printed or downloaded independantly of the current version. Downloads of text files can be converted to a variety of formats including, PDF, Word, OpenOffice, and HTML to satisfy pretty much any need. The editing window provides a handy toolbar of major word processing comamnds including a reasonable selection of fonts and the ever-critical spell check. Documents are organized using folders.

Best bet for use? If you have a selection of existing Word/etc. documents that you want to place online for group viewing or collaborative editing. Versionate isn't designed to be an individual, online word processor, but it can certainly step up to the plate when collaborative needs move beyond the simple sharing with a small group. Possible uses could include holding/developing a school's curriculum documents, collaborating on complex document sets like a regional set of units or lessons, or managing handouts for a conference or workshop.

Posted by Chris Harris on July 13, 2007 | Comments (0)