Don’t Crowd My Screen: Etiquette for Shared Online Documents

Real-time collaborative editors solved version control, but created dread.

I am writing this article for you, dear reader, alone. I am sitting at my desk, trying to focus, trying to ignore the annoying leafblower next door, the grumblings of my stomach, the anxiety of parenting. This is a solo experience, a fight with very personal demons. It’s maddening and rewarding, and it requires loneliness.

There is no room in this process for a spectator, much less a collaborator. And yet, with today’s tools, when I am at work, I can be mid-thought and see another soul pop into my document. I can see their cursor skipping through the file. Sometimes I can see them making changes to my text just a few words away from me.

What was mine has become ours.

The modern online word processor — Google Docs, Microsoft Word — turns the solitary creative experience into a collaboration. Often, an unpleasant one. Yes, collaborative editors are great at keeping revisions straight, removing file transfer mechanics, banging out a necessary doc for work that needs input from multiple people in a hurry. But the collaborative word processor turns the writer’s garret into a fishbowl. And the muse hates a crowd.

I’m not suggesting we revert to the previous era of emailing Word docs back and forth. That was worse. But to lessen the horror of public writing (or editing), maybe we can follow a few rules. Here is what i propose:

An etiquette for shared documents

1. Maintain distance

If you are reviewing a file that someone else is working in, and you can see their cursor, or worse, real-time changes they are making, you are too close. Back off to another part of the document, or close the file for now. Just in general, close a document when you’re not actively reviewing or working on it. (Writers: do this to protect your sanity.)

2. Might I suggest...

If time is critical and you must get your changes in right bloody now, at least put yourself in suggestion or revision mode so changes and deletions don’t look like glitches happening on-screen.

3. Leave a comment

When a document has a singular owner or author, and you have a suggestion, use the comment feature instead of making the change yourself.

4. Announce major structural changes

Making big changes? If you’re going to reorganize headers, change the format, or delete whole sections while someone else is in a doc, say something first. In Slack, in a comment, whatever. Don’t just demolish someone’s foundation.

5. Yield to the author

If you didn’t create the doc, you’re a guest in someone else’s kitchen. Act accordingly.

6. Announce yourself

When you are about to start a writing or editing session, and other people are likely to open the doc or are already reading it, announce your intention at the top of the section you’re working on with temporary and unmissable text.

7. Let it bake

If a section is clearly half-formed (notes-to-self, obvious placeholder text, empty bullets), it’s not ready for an editor. Let the writer finish the thought before wordsmithing.

8. Assume good faith

I stole this rule from Wikipedia, battleground of the largest edit wars in recorded history. To adapt from its primary guidance: Assuming good faith (AGF) means assuming that people are not deliberately trying to hurt, even when their actions are harmful. This is a fundamental principle. Most people try to help a project, not hurt it. Etiquette isn’t just about being kind to others, it’s also about assuming they are being kind to you.

9. Mind the fragile ego

Finally, when a writer says, “Sure, I don’t mind, go ahead and make whatever changes you want,” they are lying to you. The creative act, even for a press release, involves the ego. Be gentle with it.

The writer’s workshop, now open

Writers working on truly solo projects — books, stories, essays — enjoy the pleasure of facing their demons alone. Business writers and editors working on team projects and “deliverables” often do their work in the daylight of others’ opinions. It can be as terrifying as public speaking. So, please, as a matter of etiquette, don’t interrupt, heckle, or otherwise disturb the writer. They are already disturbed enough.