Collaborative Editing is an optional feature that has to be enabled for your organization. To turn it on, contact your Customer Success Manager or email support@verticalchange.com. Once enabled, it works automatically on Activity, Assessment, Session, Registration, and Attendance forms — just open the Form Result and start working.
These changes in behavior apply to all users editing a Form Result, even if no other users are editing the Form Result at the same time.
How it works
Fields lock as they're used. When a coworker clicks into a field, that field turns greyed out on your screen so you can't type over them. It becomes editable again the moment they click out — now showing what they entered. You can edit any field that isn't greyed out at the same time.
Changes appear live. You don't need to refresh. As each person finishes a field, their answer shows up for everyone else right away.
Entries save automatically. Each answer is saved the moment you click out of the field, so accidentally closing the tab or clicking away won't lose finished work.
Important Details
Save a brand-new form once first.
Automatic saving and field-locking only kick in after a Form Result has been saved at least once. On a brand-new, never-saved form, save it once and collaboration becomes fully active for everyone.
Cancel does not undo your changes.
Because each field saves as you click out of it, hitting Cancel simply leaves the form — it does not roll back entries you already filled in. The only thing it drops is a value you were still typing and hadn't clicked out of yet. Think of Cancel as "leave this form and save my changes," not "undo my changes." (On a brand-new, never-saved form, autosave isn't active yet, so there Cancel still discards your entries.)
A field will remain greyed out for a period if you coworker goes idle.
If a field stays locked because a coworker walked away or lost connection, the lock releases on its own after about 15 minutes. You can also ask them to click out or close the form.
Use one tab per form.
Locking is tracked per browser tab, so opening the same Form Result in two tabs will make your own tabs lock each other.
Lost connection.
If your connection drops you may stop seeing live updates — refresh the page to reconnect. Any field you were holding frees up for your coworkers automatically.
Questions?
To learn more or have Collaborative Editing enabled, contact your Customer Success Manager or email support@verticalchange.com.