Paratext has a feature called Paratext Live that lets a group of users edit the same document at the same time, keeping their versions up to date on each computer as they work together. This can be used, for instance, when a group is discussing a text, allowing several people to edit the text and improve on each other’s changes, evaluating the result together before agreeing on the best translation. This is similar to the kind of collaborative editing found in editing environments like Google Docs.
Unfortunately, some performance limitations in the Paratext Live server have made this feature less useful than we wish. We have now written a new Paratext Live server that has important advantages over the earlier one:
- It is much faster
- It can handle more simultaneous users
- It is easier for us to support
Both Paratext 8 and Paratext 9 now use the new Paratext Live server. To use the new server, Paratext 8 must use 8.0.100.87 or newer and Paratext 9 must use 9.0.100.5 or newer.
Older versions of Paratext 8 and Paratext 9 can still use Paratext Live, using the old server, but they cannot use the new server. If you want to use Paratext Live regularly, we encourage you to upgrade to the current version. We also encourage you to make sure other people on your team upgrade to the new version – if team members are using different Paratext Live servers, they will not be visible to each other. Each member will see only the team members who are using Paratext Live on the same server they are using.
If you start a Paratext Live session and you can’t get everyone into the same session, please check everyone’s version numbers to make sure they are on the same server.
