Have you been searching for a better way to collaborate with your team on experimental documentation? Maybe you’re tired of trying to interpret your labmate’s handwriting or you want to more effectively manage project collaborations. At Labforward, we value your feedback and are thrilled to announce the launch of a highly anticipated Labfolder feature: Collaborative Authoring! With this exciting addition, we’re taking a huge step toward making scientific collaboration more efficient than ever.

So, what exactly is Collaborative Authoring, and how will it transform your lab’s communication? Let’s dive into the key aspects of this new feature that will empower you and your team to collaborate more productively:

What you need to know about Contributor vs. Collaborative Editing:
With the Collaborative Authoring Feature, Labfolder grants users different editing rights…

• Contributor Editing:
  
  • Users with “Contributor” editing rights to a project can view all entries within that project but only retain the ability to edit their own entries. This level of access ensures that team members can reference a project’s contents, but prevents entries from being edited by those other than the entry’s creator. This was the default editing right previously present in Labfolder.

• Collaborative Editing:
  
  • Those with “Collaborative” editing rights to a project can both view and edit any entry in that project. This new editing right allows lab members to work on entries together and accelerates idea-sharing.

Tip: These editing rights hold true for every member of a project. i.e. When you are invited to join a “Collaborative” Project, you (and all other members of the project) become a collaborator on that project and may automatically access and edit every entry in that project. When you are invited to join a “Contributor” Project, you (and all other members of the project) may automatically view all entries but may only edit your own entries.

Changes to “Project Creation” Dialog:

• When you create a new project, you’ll be directed to the “Share Settings” screen. Here, you can choose whether the project will be “Contributive” or “Collaborative”.
• After project creation, Project Owners and Admins can later alter the collaboration status of the project via this same screen.
• Other team members can check this screen to view whether the project is set to “Contributive” or “Collaborative”.

This selection ensures that each project can be tailored to the specific collaboration needs of your team.

Tip: When you set a project to “Collaborative” or “Contributive”, you are affecting all entries in that project. In other words, you cannot change the collaboration status of a single entry.

“Collaborative” and “Contributive” Chips & Markers:

Projects now also display Chips indicating whether they are “Collaborative” or “Contributive”. Clicking these chips forwards to the “Share Settings” screen, where Admins and Project Owners can alter the collaboration status of the project. Other users may check the collaboration status of the project by viewing this chip.

Individual entries now also display a “team” icon if the project they belong to is set to collaborative – contributive entries lack this icon.

Improved Transparency in Entry Header and Audit Trail:

With Collaborative Authoring, each entry will now display additional valuable information, such as the user profile of who created the entry (“Created By”) and the last collaborator who modified it (”Last Modified”). Additionally, the Audit Trail now provides a record of the actions taken by different collaborators on an entry.

Straightforward Real-Time Collaboration:

To ensure seamless collaboration, we have developed a system which allows lab members to easily work together, without overwriting each other’s work.

• Collaborators will be informed in real time whenever their colleague is actively working on an entry.
• During this period, the entry appears to the non-editing collaborator as “View Only”. They can still export the entry as a PDF, or explore its change history, but may not edit the entry until their colleague is finished.
• However, Admins, Sub-Group Admins, and Project Owners can still intervene and take over editing rights if necessary, even in “View Only” mode.

Effortless Transitions for Entry Editing:

Once the editing collaborator saves or cancels the changes, the “View Only” banner vanishes, allowing the non-editing user to pick up right where they left off. This seamless transition ensures that everyone stays up to date without disruptions.