Collaborating on docs

Docs is built for more than one pair of hands. Open the same document as a teammate and you’ll see their cursor, their selection, and their edits — live, character by character.

Editing together

• Everyone in a doc appears as an avatar near the title.
• Each collaborator gets a colored cursor and selection highlight, labeled with their name.
• Edits merge automatically, even in the same paragraph — there’s no locking and no “someone else is editing” dialog.
• The syncing chip tells you when your latest keystrokes are safely on the server; if your connection drops, the editor says so and reconnects on its own.

Share a doc

New docs are private — only you can open them. To share:

1. Open the doc and click Share.
2. Add people and pick a role for each, or set an access level for the whole workspace.

Role	Can do
Viewer	Read and export
Commenter	Same as viewer for now (see note)
Editor	Read, edit, and export
Owner	Everything, plus sharing and delete — the creator

The workspace-wide setting has the same levels — for example “anyone in the workspace can view, plus these two editors”. Only the owner (or a workspace admin) changes sharing.

Note

Comments aren’t available yet — that’s why Commenter currently behaves exactly like Viewer. The role exists so you can set intent now; it gains commenting when comments ship.

View-only mode

If you have view access, the doc opens read-only: the toolbar is hidden, a View only chip shows in the header, and nothing you click will change the document. If someone removes your access while you’re in the doc, the editor switches to an access-removed state rather than pretending you can still type.

Trash, restore, and delete

• Trash: the doc’s owner or a workspace admin can move it to trash. It disappears from lists and search, and open editors are disconnected.
• Restore: from the Trash view, restore brings it back exactly as it was — no edits are lost across a trash/restore round-trip.
• Delete permanently: from Trash, purge a doc (or empty the whole trash) to remove it and its history for good.

Caution

Permanent deletion really is permanent — the document, its images, and its exports are all removed.

Version history

Not yet available — Docs keeps internal snapshots as you work, but a browsable version-history view hasn’t shipped yet. For a point-in-time copy today, export the doc.