Simultaneous collaboration with track changes and smart merges


The new editor is still based on the most powerful version control system out there: git. With the old editor, simultaneous collaboration was possible but conflicts were avoided by locking paragraphs when they were being edited. We decided that it was time to improve this and make the experience smoother. We've introduced a smart way to manage simultaneous editing in the rewrite -- a first for us and research writing in general: smart merges. When two authors are editing the same part of text, e.g. the same word, Authorea will merge smartly whatever it can, and when a conflict cannot be solved, it asks the user to accept or reject changes, similar to the way that changes are tracked and accepted in Word.