: Re: How can I keep up with my co-author's detail creation? Keeping track of details invented for a work of fiction is never simple, often requiring writing bibles and continuity editors. But when
Another suggestion would be to use some sort of distributed source control system to keep track of the changes that you each make.
Dropbox
Dropbox has built in source control, so you can roll back to previous changes, and it is fairly simple to use. Their Terms of Service kind of trouble me, but I may have donned my tinfoil hat in recent years.
Benefits
Easy to use
Easy to get started
Track changes
Syncs to multiple machines, making backups easier
Drawbacks
Your work is stored on someone else's servers
May not be able to see fine-grained changes easily
Git
If you're decently technical, something like git might be a better option, as you can easily see differences between check-ins, and keep track of who is changing what. As a programmer, I use git every day, and that sort of mindset has become second nature to me. This is beneficial when you're working with 10 other programmers/designers, and you need to keep track of who is doing what.
This would also give you the benefit of keeping all of the content on your own systems, making sure that it's not inadvertently copyrighted by some other entity.
The downside might be that Git was designed to work with non-binary files (such as flat text files), rather than proprietary Word files (or other proprietary file formats), so the change tracking might not be best used with Word files.
Benefits
Track changes at a fine-grained level
Your content is always in your possession
Allows you to keep multiple branches of the same work
Keep multiple versions in local source control before committing to the main repository
Don't have to keep multiple, differently-named files to track versions
Tons of resources to get you started, and keep things going
Many GUI application options to choose from, regardless of the operating systems used by the contributors
Drawbacks
Works best with non-binary file formats
Requires more technical knowledge to learn and get setup
See what other writers here on the site think about using source/version control with their writing in this question.
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