<P> A collaborative editor is a form of collaborative software application that allows several people to edit a computer file using different computers, a practice called collaborative editing . There are two types of collaborative editing: real - time and non-real - time . In real - time collaborative editing (RTCE), users can edit the same file simultaneously, whereas in Non-real - time collaborative editing, the users do not edit the same file at the same time (similar to revision control systems). Collaborative real - time editors generally permit both the above modes of editing in any given instance . </P> <P> The first instance of a collaborative real - time editor was demonstrated by Douglas Engelbart in 1968, in The Mother of All Demos . Widely available implementations of the concept took decades to appear . </P>

The ability to work on files at the same time as others is called