Distribution of responsibilities and the control of writing activities are supported by various CM systems. The mentioned two examples show how easy writing activities among multiple authors can be coordinated, if an appropriate CM system is used. Conclusion CM is a very important process during collaborative writing. Especially if there are more than one author, it goes without saying that the management of documents is easier, if their work environment is a network with supporting communication and coordination tools, like e-mail and scheduler. Applications supporting the document configuration, like CM systems, are essential to keep track of all steps in the collaborating group, and to maintain the document versions and dependencies between all document parts.
Authors can work simultaneously without overwriting the changes of others in the group.
Merging two documents becomes an easy process, if a CM tool is used for this. It is also necessary that authors understand the importance of such systems and use them regularly to insure the consistency of their documents. The existing CM tools need to be improved to avoid additional effort to use them for collaborative writing work. The acceptance of authors must be increased by integration CM tools into their work environments. Through further development CM must be used as the central part of new collaborative writing applications.