Online documents (such as
text documents,
spreadsheets, presentations,
graphics and forms) are any
documents that are held on a
computer but can be
accessed, edited and shared
from anywhere. Services
which allow this include Live
Documents, Microsoft ® Offi
ce ® Live and Google™ Docs.
Compressing Files
Working with online documents means that local
files frequently need to be uploaded for sharing, or
downloaded to be used for local processing. Files
may be extremely large, which can cause problems
with transmission (delivery) in terms of speed and
network usage. To reduce this problem, files have
to be compressed (i.e. reduced in size) before
transmission and then expanded after
transmission. A common method of doing this is to
convert them to zip files (.zip format). Zip files are
basically stores of data files which may have been
compressed. There are many different algorithms
for doing the compression – with most
compression software supporting several of these.
The last item in a zip file is an index, which shows
the placement of each of the data files and allows
other files to be added. Quite often the zip file will
also contain some program code (a sequence of
instructions) to allow the fi les within the zip file to
be unzipped (known as self-extract
The advantages of using online software
The biggest advantage of using online document
software is that you can allow many people to
share a version of a document and work on it at
the same time as other people (known as
collaborative working). You can also access
content: • anywhere there is an available internet
connection • via different devices (e.g. PC,
smartphone, tablet) • on different operating
devices (e.g. Windows ® and Mac). Online
documents can also have automatic backup.
Backing up fi les means that you save a copy of
the fi le at a known point in time. This means that
you can always go back to that version if you lose
or corrupt the present version. Some software
programs will automatically make a copy of the fi
le you have open and are working on at set time
intervals. In Microsoft ® Word ® you can set how
often you would like the fi le to automatically
backup (every 30 minutes, every 60 minutes, etc).
Automatic backup of online documents is just an
extension of this concept.
Controls over online documents
Version control
Version control is important when users are sharing
documents online, as all users need to be working from
the most up-to-date version of the same document.
One of the simplest ways of implementing version
control is to allow just one user to open a document, or
part of the document, for update at any one time. When
one user has the document open and someone else
tries to access it, the document will be locked . It is only
unlocked when the original user has completed
updating the fi le and has closed it again. The method of
‘locking data’ has many uses within online documents
and with database systems. It is commonly used on
legal, engineering and medical documents which must
be complete and up to date. Did you know? Other
methods of version control include the software
allocating the latest version number showing the time
and identity of the person making the changes. If, for
any reason, a document does become corrupt
(damaged) or is missing important updates, it is
possible to roll
Levels of access and file permissions
The system administrator within an
organisation can control the levels of
access users have to a particular
document. They can allocate access to
individuals or particular groups of
documents by using file permissions .
Some users may only be able to read
documents but not edit them. Other
users may be allowed to read and edit
documents some may be allowed to add
new documents and some will be
allowed to delete documents. File
permissions can be used to restrict
access to certain documents and to
restrict what can be done to them.
Read-only access. This
allows a user to look at
and read a document
but not to change it. A
university lecturer could
use a Word® document
to create a test for their
class, if the document
was set as ‘read-only’
then the class would not
be able to make any
changes to the wording.
Read/Write access.
This allows a user to
look at and read a
document, but also to
make changes to it
Full control. This
allows users to
retrieve a document,
read it, edit it, add a
new document or
delete or archive an
existing document.
Full control is usually
given to people who
administer the
system. They may be
senior people within
the organisation or
senior administrators
who report directly to
senior management.