Use file locking when collaborating on the content of Microsoft Office Word documents and files in the internet cloud.
Using “file locking” technology is important when you are sharing a Word or other word processing document with others. A file lock is used to prevent two people from opening and updating the same document or file at the same time, because that would result in one person’s updates wiping out the other’s.
On an office LAN this happens automatically and easily because Word can directly open the file on a LAN server, or even on a colleagues Mac or PC if they are on the same LAN network.
When you share a Word or other word processing file “in the internet cloud” File locking requires special software to do the same thing.
The WebDAV protocol used by Web Folders (and supported by My Docs Online) does this only for Word and Excel, because each application needs to use and understand “WebDAV Locks” and Word and Excel are essentially the only applications that do.
Although Microsoft and Office have supported WebDAV since XP and Office 2003, the support in more recent versions of Windows and Office (notably the combination of Windows 7 and Office 2010) is less reliable. This can be an issue as people upgrade from XP to Windows 7.
File Locking is also implemented in the My Docs Online Desktop App, which has additional benefits, including working with all versions of Windows and Mac OS X, all versions of Microsoft Office Word, and other word processing applications such as OpenOffice, Word Perfect, iWork, and others.