Small Business

Collaborate on Documents with TextFlow

By Rick Broida

Updated on: January 22, 2009 / 12:00 PM EST / MoneyWatch

Collaborating on a single document presents a variety of logistical challenges. Who has the latest version? Whose changes get accepted? How do you reconcile conflicting comments from three different people? And holy crosswords, Batman, this Word file is so littered with markups, it's impossible to read anymore!

Enter TextFlow, a new tool that promises to simplify document collaboration. Built on Adobe Air, this clever program leverages the idea of "parallel word processing." In a nutshell, it turns multiple marked-up documents into one document, then lets you review the various changes and incorporate the ones you want.

This is better shown than described, so check out the above video. You can take TextFlow for a quick Web-based test-drive without installing anything, or you can sign up for the beta and install the app for a real-world test.

TextFlow is not only way sexier than Google Docs (which offers basic collaboration tools of its own), it also solves the problem of company policies that don't allow documents to reside in the cloud. Give it a try and post your thoughts in the Comments! [via gHacks]