It’s important to keep all of your work—and all versions of your work—online so that all members of your team can access it. At the Yes Lab, we usually use Google Drive since it’s widely available, but there's that whole NSA problem. Free and Open Source tools are a great alternative for collective online collaboration; one tool we recommend is Titanpad.
Each group (of two) should have one member who knows the tool and one who does not know the tool. ONLY the person who does not know the tool can touch the keyboard.
- Create a directory (aka folder, aka collection). Give it a name that tells us what your project’s about. (You can come up with a silly project for now.)
- Create a subdirectory. Name it "Images."
- Upload any image into your Images subdirectory.
- Create a new subdirectory called "management"
- Create a new document in your project's main directory called "Roles."
- Come up with three job titles and write them down. Under each, write three or four words, of any sort.
- Under the third job title, link one of the words to the image you uploaded into your Images directory.
- Put each job title into heading 4 style
- Above the top one, type "job titles" on a line, and put it in "heading 3" style—this time using only your keyboard (not the mouse; you can use the mouse to figure out the shortcuts, however)
- Under all that text in the doc, type "Duties for everyone," put it in heading 3 style, and type in something that everyone should always do.
- At top of doc, in heading 2 style, type "current version"
- At the bottom of the document, type “Old Versions” on a line and put it in heading 1
- At the top of the document, add an extra line, turn it into "normal" style, and generate a table of contents! This should list all the headers you've put into the document so far.
- Copy everything below and including "current version" and above "Old Versions," and paste it under "Old Versions." Change "current version" to "Version #1" (should still be in Heading 2)
- Change all the text below the Version #1 heading to be gray rather than black, so you're not confused about which is the current version
- Regenerate the table of contents
- Then, share your folder (the one you created to contain your document) with the full group. Include a message bragging about what a Collaborative Writing Tool Master you are.