Best practices for Document sharing in Pergamon

To ensure a seamless and conflict-free experience while working with documents in Pergamon, follow the best practices outlined in this article. These guidelines will help you avoid data loss, synchronization issues, conflicts, inadvertent deletions when sharing documents with others.

1. Grant View Only access to other users

To minimize the risk of accidental overwrites, conflicts, or inadvertent deletions, limit the permissions granted to other users.

Implications

• Full Access Risks:
  • Simultaneous edits or autosave actions can cause conflicts, overwriting others’ work.
  • Setting General Access = Full Access allows anyone in Pergamon to edit, share, or even delete your documents. 
• View Only Benefits:
  • Granting View Only access ensures that other users can view the document without making changes, reducing the risk of conflicts or deletions.

How to Implement

1. When sharing a document, select the View Only permission option from Document Attributes > Access Control.
2. Only grant full access to users who absolutely need to make changes to the document.
3. Regularly review and update permissions to ensure they align with current collaboration needs.

2. Use the Duplication feature for independent edits

If you want to allow another user to freely make changes without affecting the original document, use the duplication feature.

Implications

• Duplicating a document creates a separate copy that can be edited independently, eliminating the risk of conflicts with the original document.
• This is particularly useful when users want to experiment with changes or create alternative versions of a document.

How to Implement

For instructions on how to duplicate a document, see the Duplicate a Document support article.

Once the document is duplicated, you can share the duplicated document with the other user, granting them full edit access. The other user can now make changes to the duplicated document without affecting the original.

3. Avoid opening multiple instances of the same Document

Opening the same document in multiple tabs or browsers can lead to synchronization issues and data loss.

Implications

• When a document is open in multiple tabs or browsers, each instance may autosave independently, potentially overwriting changes made in another instance.
• This can result in lost work or conflicts that are difficult to resolve.

How to Implement

1. Close duplicate tabs: Ensure that only one instance of the document is open at a time.
2. Use a single browser: Avoid opening the same document in different web browsers.
3. Refresh before editing: If you suspect the document is open in another tab, refresh the current tab to ensure you are working on the latest version.

Additional Best Practices

To further enhance your experience, follow these additional best practices:

Communicate with collaborators

• • Inform other users when you are actively editing a document to avoid simultaneous changes.
  • Establish a workflow where only one person edits the document at a time, if possible.

Save changes manually

• While autosave is convenient, manually saving your changes periodically can help ensure they are synced to the server.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

If you encounter issues such as lost changes or conflicts, follow these steps:

1. Review Permissions:
   • Ensure that permissions are correctly configured to prevent unauthorized edits.
   • Verify that your document is not being accessed by another user in Full access mode. 
2. Contact Support:
   • If the issue persists, reach out to Pergamon's support team for assistance through the Pergamon Support Portal.

Summary of Best Practices

By following these best practices, you can minimize the risk of document conflicts, data loss, and synchronization issues in Pergamon. If you have further questions or need assistance, please contact our support team.