New Feature: Collaboration

Recently, we’ve had a round of customer interviews. More specifically, 100 interviews in 14 days. And while it was great to hear how much you love Better Proposals, we’re all about improvement. So, we asked what you think is missing and got to work on making it happen.

The most resounding answer was real-time collaboration. You wanted to edit the same document at the same time as someone else. We’re happy to announce that, from now on, you can. Here’s the rundown of our new Collaboration feature on the Enterprise plan.

Template and document editing is changing

Up to now, you needed to make sure you weren’t trying to edit a template or document at the same time as someone else was doing it. For example, let’s say you and Nancy were in charge of getting your marketing proposal up to date. Her job was to get the introduction done, and you needed to sort out the pricing.

Nancy was right in the middle of typing up the introduction when you opened the same marketing proposal to get the pricing done. Next thing Nancy knows, she’s being kicked out of the marketing proposal. Now, she has to check whether it was you or someone else on the team and tell you to give her a few minutes to finish.

Whether a scenario like this happened to you once in a while or repeatedly is beside the point. The fact of the matter is, it was inconvenient. But don’t worry - you’ll never have to go through it again.

Simultaneous editing, welcome

From now on, multiple users can simultaneously work on the same template or document. This means you no longer have to think twice before going in and making changes. Remember Nancy and the marketing proposal from before?

Thanks to simultaneous editing, you and Nancy can now both work on your respective proposal sections at the same time. She handles the introduction while you edit the pricing without anyone having to wait for someone else to finish. And if Steve wants to make a few tweaks to the project timeline while you’re at it, he can.

Besides allowing for multiple people to edit the same template or document, the new Collaboration feature also lets you see who those people are. Every time there’s more than one user editing the same template or document, you’ll see a profile icon in the top Editor bar.

What simultaneous editing looks like

Apart from seeing who is editing the same document or template as you, you’ll also notice which sections they’re currently editing. For example, if you take a look at the introduction section while Nancy is editing it, you’ll see a padlock icon in the middle of the content block. In addition to that, a message informing you that she is currently editing the block will appear.

Think of it as claiming a content block. As long as Nancy is editing the introduction block, nobody else can click on it or edit it in any way. We made it work this way for two reasons:

1. Collaboration is less stressful if you know you have editing privacy
2. More simultaneous edits to the same block mean more room for error

If this still isn’t making a lot of sense, it will in a minute. Ever edited a Google Doc and seen an Anonymous Octopus appear while you’re typing? Then you know that feeling of being watched and the pressure of someone looking at you typing, deleting, and retyping a sentence. Not the most pleasant thing in the world, right?

And what about someone going into the same paragraph you’re editing to tweak the sentence you’ve just finished at the same time as you’re typing a new one? More often than not, these types of situations end up in poor grammar or words missing from the paragraph on accident.

You see now why we’ve decided to make our real-time Collaboration feature a bit more private than it usually is. The last thing you need while creating a high-stakes document is the added stress of being scrutinized.

Wrapping up

Keeping business on track largely depends on how well you can keep your entire team on the same page. The new Collaboration feature allows you to do that with much less hassle than ever before.

Thank you for all your feedback. It truly is the most important ingredient in being able to regularly improve Better Proposals. That said, hang tight because we’re not done yet. Another exciting new feature is coming your way soon!