Patent Document ID: 8352418
Application ID: 13079605

Base Claim:
1. A method for authoring a document at a first computing device, the method comprising: at the first computing device, allowing a first unit of data of the document to be edited by a first user; at the first computing device, when the first unit of data is edited, providing a first annotation on the document indicating that the document is being edited by the first user; at the first computing device, sending a first metadata update to a second computing device, the first metadata update indicating that the first unit of data of the document is being edited; at the first computing device, receiving a second metadata update from the second computing device, the second metadata update indicating a name of a second user that is editing a second unit of data of the document; at the first computing device, setting a first lock on the second unit of data, the first lock on the second unit of data preventing the second unit of data from being edited at the first computing device; at the first computing device, providing a second annotation on the document, the second annotation indicating that the second unit of data is being edited by the second user; at the first computing device, receiving content updates for the document from the second computing device; at the first computing device, in response to receiving the content updates, receiving an instruction from the first user to instantiate the content updates into the document; and at the first computing device, in response to the instruction from the first user, updating the document to incorporate the content updates.

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Claim 4:
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising setting a second lock on the first unit of data when the first unit of data is edited, the second lock preventing the first unit of data from being edited by anyone other than the first user.