Microsoft Word offers options to prevent data loss caused by connection issues to remote storage. The option is available in Word 2003, 2007 and 2010. This guide explains how to make the configuration changes in Word 2010 so that copies of remote documents are always stored on the local computer system during editing to prevent data loss.

The File button in the upper left corner of the Word window opens a context menu that includes a link to the Options menu.

word options

The left sidebar links to specific configuration categories like Save, Proofing or Language, the right content area lists the parameters that can be modified in the selected category.

The Advanced category displays a large list of parameters that can be changed in Microsoft Word.

The Save sub-heading under Advanced contains the parameters needed to make the changes to work with local copies of remote Word documents.

The entry “Copy remotely stored files onto your computer, and update the remote file when saving” is responsible for this. Enabling it reduces the chance of data loss while working with remote documents in Word.

word remote document copies

The parameter “always create backup copy” can be enabled to increase the security further. Word will always create a backup document copy once the option has been enabled.

The difficult part begins to combine and make use of that feedback without loosing control. If you do that in Microsoft Word or any other desktop text editor you will most likely wind up with multiple documents opened in tabs or windows trying desperately to align them comfortably.

Text Flow is an online collaboration software using Adobe Flash and Adobe Air that allows the user to compare and display multiple versions of a document online. With Text Flow it is just a matter of dragging and dropping the documents into the interface to visualize all comments and changes made by other authors who worked with the document.

Check out the Text Flow online demo to see how the system works.

There are obviously other ways to handle the problem of receiving feedback from multiple colleagues. If time is not a issue you could make the colleagues work on one document only that gets send to each of them successively.

Other services like Google Docs offer basic collaboration features but they are not always allowed to use depending on the company you work for.