TextFlow, Document Collaboration Software, Real Time Collaboration

There are multitude tools that you can use to make collaborative editing easy and one of them is TextFlow. TextFlow is an application from Adobe that allows an editor to combine documents from up to several editors. This feature is very important since it makes document collaboration very easy especially if you are doing very big project.

What is great about this tool is that just like any other document collaboration software, installation is a breeze. It is supported with Windows XP, Vista and 7 while there is no current version that supports other operating systems. All you need to do is to download the executable file, run it and it will automatically install the software for you in your computer. After the simple installation, you then have to sign up as the master editor. Once done, you can now collaborate different documents in the software. The service’s servers which are the online server of the tool will analyze the documents to display a good interface which allows the master editor to dismiss or accept the master document.

What the tool does is that it automatically saves the file or recovers them if a power failure occurs. You can also view PDF files or even do some screen capture in your computer, solve scientific calculations and even surf the internet in one platform.

The main advantage of the tool is that it offers a lot of convenience to the users. However, all software has drawbacks. Sadly enough, the TextFlow is restricted with several limitations. Unfortunately, it can only handle files which have 10 pages only. Moreover, the tool cannot support charts, tables and images and that it can only support only up to seven editors. So if you are going to use this tool, you might as well limit your editors to seven (7) and that already includes you.

These limitations make TextFlow a bad choice for bigger organizations. However, this should not be a problem for organizations that are small. In fact, the tool can be used by students who are working on a particular project. Perhaps the biggest drawback of this tool is that it is not a real-time collaboration platform which allows the editors to work simultaneously with one another. Unfortunately, the limitations of the tool make it a bad option to be used in the professional enterprises. Although this is the case, I am pretty sure that the developers of the tool are working on to improve it.