People have complained that Scrivener doesn’t support realtime collaboration between multiple users (say an author and an editor or publisher), or between two or more co-authors. But, there is a solution, a solution that works not just with Scrivener, but with any application or suite of applications on one computer (in my case, a Mac), and anyone else with a computer or pad or smart phone so long as all participants are connected to the net. I don’t know if the Apple Messages or Apple FaceTime solutions described above can be innitiated remotely (I believe there must always be a person with accesss to the host computer present at the host computer in order to innitate screen sharing sessions witth these tools). However, I know from experience that Jump Desktop works well when no one is present at the host computer. I have installed both Jump Desktop (the master program) and its no cost client software Jump Desktop Connect on all of my Macs. That way i can log in to any of them as hosts from any of them as clients and work remotely as though I was there. So long as the secure handoff has been saved, logging in is a simple as clicking on any of these computers from a list presented by the Jump Desktop application. To make sure I know which computer I am remotely operating, I have set each up with its own wallpaper. Once I sign in, I use one of my Mac’s “Spaces” for that Shared Screen window which I expand to full screen. There are times when I have 2 or 3 of these remote Macs occupying Spaces on the Mac I am currently using.
Screen sharing is the solution. On the Mac, this can be set up easily with Messages, Apple’s native messaging application. Or one can set it up using a third party application like Jump Desktop.
The primary author sets up the screen sharing session and then invites another or several other people to the session. Once that visiting person has accepted the session, they see the sharing party’s computer screen, and depending upon permissions granted, can either watch and interact via voice, or also control the pointer and input text via their own keyboard.
True, those collaborating must agree on acceptable collaborative behavior, and both parties must trust each-other, but such sessions are intimate and collaborative and tactile.
One way to share your screen but only with other computers on your current network):
Another way to do this is with the Jump Desktop app. This is the solution I might choose if I were an editor or agent, as only you need to purchase the app, your authors can download the accompanying remote client app for free. Conversely, if you frequently need to collaborate with multiple agents and or editors or publishers, buy the app, and have these people download the free client software for free.
The third and easy way to collaborate remotely with screen sharing is with the Apple native FaceTime app (pre-installed on every Mac and iOS device):
A forth and very easy way to share screens remotely is with Messages, Apple’s native text messaging application:
Note: if you view, write, or edit the same Scrivener documents from multiple devices and you have experienced troubles like lost or corrupted Scrivener Project files, you might consider only installing Scrivener on one Mac, leaving that Mac at home, always on, and always connected to the net, and then logging into that Mac and using screen sharing to work on your Scrivener projects remotely. That way, there is no potential problem of accidentally working on the same project at the same time on two devices and loosing or corrupting your Scrivener project files). Remember that if you choose this option, you can only work on your Scrivener projects when both devices are reliably connected to the internet (but even should your connection go down mid session, the machine hosting your Scrivener application and project will be just fine, waiting diligently for your remote machine to come back on-line).