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Collaborative editing allows multiple users to edit the same wiki page at the same time. Changes are visible to all participants in real time. This is useful for writing meeting minutes, drafting content, brainstorming, and taking notes during live sessions.

Two side-by-side browser windows of collabpad participants
YouTube icon
YouTube: Edit together (04:01 min.)

Typical use cases

Collaborative editing is useful when several people need to contribute to the same content at the same time.

  • Meeting minutes: Participants can record meeting minutes together during a meeting or other live session. This helps capture contributions from multiple participants in real time.
  • Drafting and brainstorming: Participants can develop new topics, outlines, and ideas together.
  • Knowledge transfer: Several participants can contribute their knowledge directly to the wiki instead of collecting and combining their contributions later.
  • Taking notes: Participants can use a collaborative editing session to collect notes before deciding which content to save to the wiki.

Start a collaborative editing session

To start a collaborative editing session:

  1. Open the page.
  2. Select Edit > Edit together.
    Edit menu with the Edit together option highlighted
    Edit together option
  3. A welcome message announces the start of the collaborative editing session. To prevent this message from appearing again, select the corresponding checkbox.
  4. Select Start to begin the session, or select Cancel to return to another editing mode.
    Welcome message with a checkbox and Start and Cancel buttons
    Starting a collaborative editing session

After the session starts, a banner at the top of the page indicates that a collaborative editing session is open.

Page banner announcing that a collaborative editing session is open and providing a link to join
Open collaborative editing session
New pagesEdit together can be selected when creating a new page. If a page template is required, first select the page template in regular editing mode and save the page. Then open the page in Edit together mode.

Join a collaborative editing session

When a collaborative editing session is open, another user can join by:

  • selecting the Edit button (pencil icon), or
  • selecting Edit togehter from the Edit menu.

Edit together is the only available editing mode while a collaborative editing session is running.
An alert with the participant's username appears when a new participant joins the session.

Alert message showing the username of a newly joined participant
New participant joins

Identify participants

Edits made by other participants are marked with colored flags in real time. Hover over a flag to display the participant's username.

Green flag marking a participant's edit
Participant flag


The Participants option in the editor toolbar shows the number of participants in the session. Select Participants to open the participant list.
To distinguish participants more easily, select a flag color in the participant list to change the color assigned to a participant.

Participant menu with the Copy invite link option
Participant list

Invite participants

To invite another participant to the current collaborative editing session:

  1. Select Participants in the editor toolbar.
  2. Select Copy invite link.
  3. Paste the copied link into another application, such as a chat application.

The copied link opens the current collaborative editing session.

Manage a collaborative editing session

Leave without saving

A participant can leave the session at any time without saving the current changes.
To leave the session:

  1. Select Leave in the editor toolbar.
  2. In the confirmation dialog, select Leave.

Selecting Leave removes the participant from the session but keeps the participant's contributions as part of the current session edits. Leaving does not create a new page revision and does not end the session. Other participants can continue editing.
To remain in the session, select Cancel instead.

Leave button and confirmation dialog
Leaving the session

Discard pending changes

Pending changes can be discarded collectively by reverting the session to the last saved version.
To discard pending changes:

  1. Open the options menu in the editor toolbar.
  2. Select Revert changes to the last saved version.
Options menu with Revert changes to the last saved version highlighted
Discarding pending changes

Save changes

To create a new page revision without leaving collaborative editing mode, select Save changes.
All changes made by the participants are saved in the new revision. The collaborative editing session remains open after the page is saved.
After a save, Save changes is disabled for all participants. It becomes available again when additional changes are made.

Understand sessions and page revisions

A collaborative editing session follows this general process_

File:Collabpads-session-handling.png
  1. The first participant starts the session. Other participants can then join.
  2. After participants make changes, a participant saves the page and leaves the session. A new page version is created in the background, and all participants are recorded as editors of the revision.
  3. After the page is saved, Save changes is disabled for all participants. It becomes available again after additional editing by one or more participants.
  4. A participant can leave the session before additional changes are made.
  5. When the next changes are saved, only the participants who are present when those changes began are recorded as editors of the new revision.
  6. If the last participant leaves without any additional changes since the last edit, the session ends. If there are unsaved changes, the session remains open so that another participant can join.

End a collaborative editing session

A session ends in either of these situations:

  • The last participant saves the page.
  • The last participant leaves and there are no unsaved changes.

Otherwise, the session remains open.
If the last participant leaves while unsaved changes exist, the collaborative editing session remains active in the background. This protects the unsaved content and allows another participant to continue editing it.
Unsaved changes are not visible in view mode. When the page is opened for editing, the current state of the collaborative editing session is displayed. The pending changes can then be discarded or edited and saved.

Resolve an unresolved session

If the last participant leaves without saving, the collaborative editing session remains active in the background. The next user who edits the page can only open it in Edit together mode.
After the unsaved changes are saved, the page can be opened in any available editing mode again.