E C list wrote: > Folks- I've been tasked to come up with a way for > television script writers to share and co-edit word > docs. It would need to be an online solution, because > they are distributed around the USA. Only one editor > at a time needs to edit the document, and they don't > need to collaborate in real-time...but changes need to > be tracked. > > I've been trying to figure out what's the best way to > handle this among several options. The one that's > winning right now is to basically have people use > Microsoft Word as they are used to, and then upload > revisions of a document to an intranet that will show > previous versions of said document.
I have been dabbling with OpenDocument and some XML diff utilities and if it falls in the time-budget I think you can make an excellent system with it. OpenDocument, the OASIS format used by kOffice, OpenOffice, StarOffice etc., is a little different from WordML in that it consists of multiple XML documents grouped in a .zip. One document for the styles, one for each image, one for the content etc. (There is no reason ths should work with WordML too, but that produces huge XML files because everything is put in one file.) I presume that script writers don't add images etc. to their documents and they all use the same set of corporate styles. That makes it very easy to extract the content: extract content.xml from the zip archive and forget about the rest. Now you have a relative small and straightforward XML file with the content. Store / merge / diff it, whatever the requirements are and rebuild your OpenDocument file by just putting the content.xml back in. Fairly straightforward, but it is lots of work, many things you will need to automate from scratch, but the individual steps work. Jochem ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:212103 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
