Re: [evince] Academic writers using Gnome

[Udvarias Ur <udvarias1 gmail com>]

Dear Giselle,

LibreOffice has collaboration tools built in, and is available for Linux, MAC, and MS Windows in over 40 languages. Once LibreOffice is installed on the computers of all the collaborators.

1. Configure LibreOffice

First all participants would have to configure LibreOffice to work collaboratively. (Though this is may be the default it should be checked before starting.)

1. Open Writer.
2. Select Tools — Options from the menu to open the Options dialogue box.
3. Expand LibreOffice Writer from the list in the left panel.
4. Select Changes
   
5. In the right panel, if not already set, select By author for Insertions, Deletions, and Changed attributes.
   
   BTW. This will apply to additions, deletions, changes, and Comments. Comments are accessed from the menu through Insert — Comment or Ctrl-Alt-C. (Comments are like electronic Post-its.)
   

2. Deciding how to collaborate

As I see it there are 2 ways that these tools could be used.

1. ALL collaborators work on a single copy of a document. (They would have to do so in series.)
   
   
2. Each collaborator works on a separate copy of the document. (In parallel.)
        Then one of the collaborators integrates all the changes and/or suggestions into one document.
   

(I do not see how more than one collaborator could work on a single document simultaneously even if the document was in a location that could be accessed by all. Even Authorea locks portions of a document so that only one person can work on that portion at a time.)

3. Set the document to record changes

The document, or the copies of the document, that will by edited have to be marked to record changes. This is done by:

• Selecting Edit — Changes — Record from the menu while the document is loaded in Writer and saving the document.
  

4. Managing changes

The Edit — Changes menu option has a Merge Document… item that is supposed to merge copies of a document that have been edited this way.

It would be wise to read the manual about using change tracking options or merging documents to find out exactly how they work.

5. Bibliographic management

The Zotero add on, which was created by academics for academics, should be able to handle all the referencing that scholars need for their research papers.


BTW. Working with documents in this way, on their own machines, will not eliminate the possibility of the document(s) being stolen. However, it will enormously reduce the exposure that working with a copy some where in cyber space (i.e. a cloud) presents.

On 14-09-09 07:25 AM, Giselle Reis wrote:

Dear all,

Christian Löffelsender (cc'd) contacted me in June with an idea for a project in Gnome. He wants to have a way for (academic) writers to collaborate on text (papers, books, etc), which would include also a bibliography management. On the e-mails we've exchanged, he mentions two online (but not optimal) solutions:

{snip}

-- 
Udvarias Ur

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