Tracking changes in a mixed environment

[parenthesis]

I'm working in ITS at the University of Colorado - Boulder, and need some kind of solution to a problem in our department.

We work in a very mixed and mobile environment (Four ThinkPads a PB and an iBook) and need to keep track of changes in documents, PowerPoint being the most important. Currently, we all work on separate copies of the file, and then hope that we have the current version of it on the laptop that we are presenting with.

I'm sure that there is a software solution (or even a physical solution) for us, but I don't currently know what that solution would be. I am going to be meeting with my boss tomorrow to discuss some of our options, and would like to have some input from other people before then.

 

[beatle888]

does powerpoint actaully let people (more than one) work on the SAME file at the SAME time? i didnt know it had workgroup capabilities and if im right then that means your team is NOT working on the same file at the same time. i work with many others and its very important to know if someone is working on a file that others might be accessing. of course if your working off the server then no one else will be able to access the current file while someone else is working on it...this is a good thing since it prevent to people making changes to the doc at the same time and one person puts THEIR new updated file back on the server and then the second person puts THEIR new updated version back on the server erasing the FIRST persons corrections. very messy.

you could label the FILE red if its being worked on by someone and after their done they could label it blue...this will let others know that someone has the file if its labeled in red. at that point they would know that they need to wait till person making the changes updates the server with the new doc.

you can also keep this file in a shared documents folder or .mac account folder so you can make changes away from the office and still update and make it available for your coworkers. hope that helped.

 

[parenthesis]

you could label the FILE red if its being worked on by someone and after their done they could label it blue...this will let others know that someone has the file if its labeled in red. at that point they would know that they need to wait till person making the changes updates the server with the new doc.

I really like that suggestion, but I don't know if it something that we can currently implement. Most of the people on my team work on the ThinkPads, leaving the labels pretty much useless to them. We could potentially make separate folders ("in progress" and "ready") but we would need to get Servers to approve some space for us, and also make it password protected.

 

[beatle888]

if you guys CAN work off the server then you wont need to do this. as far as i understand it the server wont let more then one person have the file open at the same time. you'll get a message saying something like "file is in use".

 

[superbovine]

I'm working in ITS at the University of Colorado - Boulder, and need some kind of solution to a problem in our department.

We work in a very mixed and mobile environment (Four ThinkPads a PB and an iBook) and need to keep track of changes in documents, PowerPoint being the most important. Currently, we all work on separate copies of the file, and then hope that we have the current version of it on the laptop that we are presenting with.

I'm sure that there is a software solution (or even a physical solution) for us, but I don't currently know what that solution would be. I am going to be meeting with my boss tomorrow to discuss some of our options, and would like to have some input from other people before then.

Lotus Notes has the stuff your looking for. The only other solution I can think of comes from the programming world, but wouldn't really work for microsoft office files. Notes is expensive. I have heard of Microsoft SharePoint, but i have never used it nor do i know if will work on a Mac.

For small programming projects, I have seen a "bottle" system used. It will work for stuff like this unless you need to both work on the same files at the same time. In general, though you drink as many beers as you have documents then mark bottles with the document names, if the bottle is in someone's cubicle, it is checked out. At this point you can either "make" more bottles, or work on another document. It sounds like everyone is a laptop though and is mobile so might not work. This could be done with a small php program on a web server too, although no beer is involved