Write with Others

Share a project with up to three co-writers and five commenters. Everyone works on the same project, on a Mac, iPad or iPhone or in a browser, and sees what the others write as they write it.

A shared project travels through Five Rooms on the web (see Five Rooms on the Web). It stays encrypted end to end: your device gives each person the project's key, and the server never sees it.

Invite someone

  1. Sign in to Five Rooms on the web in Settings > Web, if you haven't on this device.
  2. Choose Share Project…: in the Project menu on a Mac, in the ⋯ or + menu on iPad and iPhone, or by Control-clicking the project in the Library.
  3. Choose Co-writer or Commenter, then Make Invitation Link, and send them the link. It works once.

Inviting someone puts the project on the web, if it isn't there yet. The person you invite needs a Five Rooms account on the web too; they can make one when they open the link.

A co-writer writes, plans and revises with you. A commenter reads, comments and suggests changes, and can't change the text.

Confirm them

When they open the link they're shown a safety code. Ask them for it by phone or in person, not in the message that carried the link. Choose Confirm… beside their name and type it. It matches only if the invitation reached them and nobody else. If it doesn't match, remove them and send a new link.

Once you confirm them, the project appears in their Library.

Join someone's project

Open the link you were sent. On a Mac, iPad or iPhone with Five Rooms installed it opens in the app; anywhere else it opens in a browser.

  1. If this device isn't signed in to Five Rooms on the web, choose Open Settings… (on iPad and iPhone, Sign In…) and sign in. The invitation is waiting when you come back.
  2. Choose Accept the Invitation.
  3. Read the safety code it shows to the project's owner, by phone or in person.

When they've confirmed you, the project appears in your Library, marked Shared by its owner, and the sheet offers Open the Project. You can close the sheet while you wait: the code stays in Settings > Web, under Shared with You, and Five Rooms keeps checking while it's open and tells you when you're in. You can also paste a link or its code there and choose Join.

To join in a browser instead, choose Open in the Browser Instead.

A project shared with you syncs through the web only. It isn't kept in your iCloud.

Write together

When someone else has the project open, Write's footer says who's here, and a dot in their colour marks the scene they're in. In the text you see their caret, with their name, and what they select. If you're both in one scene, a note says so. Nothing is locked: you can both write, even in the same paragraph, and nothing either of you types is lost.

A commenter's editor is read-only. To comment, select some text and choose Add Comment… or Suggest Change….

If the owner changes your role, or removes you, Five Rooms tells you within a couple of minutes while it's open, and at once when you come back to it.

See who wrote what

  • Revise ▸ History says who added the words between a checkpoint and now, for the project and for each scene, and who made each checkpoint.
  • Comments and suggestions carry their writer's name in their colour.
  • In revision mode, choose Colour by Author in the revision menu to colour added words by who wrote them.
  • Library ▸ All statistics has a By person card.

Words written before the project was shared, or on a device that hasn't written in it since, show as an unknown device.

What only the owner does

The owner shares the project, compiles it, changes its byline, makes reader links, turns on agents, compacts its history, and renames it, puts it in a series or takes it off the web. Co-writers and commenters see the Publish previews under the owner's name.

To credit your co-writers on the book, add them under Co-authors in the Publish room (see Compiling). Naming a co-author there doesn't share the project with them: invite them with Share Project….

Remove someone, or leave

In Share Project…, choose Remove… beside a name. They stop receiving the project at once, and your device changes the project's key, so nothing written from then on opens for them. What they already have stays on their devices.

To leave a project shared with you, choose Leave Project… in its menu, or Leave… under Shared with You in Settings > Web. Your copy stays in your Library until you delete it.