Writing with someone

Writing with someone lets a co-author write in your book from their own Rescriptus, on their own device, for as long as the book takes. Menus call it Write with someone; this help calls the other writer your co-author.

Their changes go straight to your Rescriptus, and your app saves them to your storage, whichever you use: this browser, a folder, GitHub, Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive. They need no account, and no access to your storage. Our server never sees the writing or your co-authors' keys. It knows that a room for your book is open while your Rescriptus is, and passes the sealed set-up messages between the two apps, which it cannot read.

Invite someone

1. Open the book and its … menu (More about this book), and choose Write with someone….
2. Type the name of the person you are inviting and choose Make a link. Each link is for one person.
3. Choose Copy link and send it to that person only. Send the whole link, including the part after the #: that part is their key, and it never reaches our server.

They open the link, see who invited them, and press the button that opens your book. Their own projects on that device stay as they are, and they can go back to them from Where your writing lives. A bar at the bottom right of their screen says how things stand: writing in your book, waiting for you, or your Rescriptus not open.

Letting them in

The link alone lets no one in. The first time they connect, your Rescriptus asks you, at the bottom right of whatever page you are on: "Pat wants to write in …". Choose Let in or Not now. A co-author can read and change every file of the project, so let in only someone you are expecting.

Rescriptus remembers the last five devices you let each person in on, so next time they go straight in from those. Any other browser or device they use asks you again. If you are not expecting that, check with them before you let them in.

Write with someone lists your co-authors and how each one stands: Wants to write, Writing now, Let in · not connected or Link not used yet (which is also what someone you answered Not now shows). Copy link is there for each person until you let them in. While someone is writing, a small bar on your screen says so.

Your Rescriptus must be open

Their changes reach your storage only while your Rescriptus is open on the project, on any page, in the browser where you made the links. That browser keeps the list of your co-authors: another device of yours on the same storage cannot let them in, and clearing that browser's data for this site ends their links. When it is closed, they keep writing: the book opens from the copy on their device, and their changes wait there. When you open Rescriptus again, what they wrote is sent and saved. The first time, though, you have to be there to let them in.

If you both change the same file while apart, Rescriptus does what it does when a file changes on another device: different words are combined, and the same words wait for a decision. See When a file changes somewhere else.

Removing someone

In Write with someone, choose Remove beside their name. Their link stops working at once, and if they are writing they are disconnected. What they have already saved stays in your project. Their device keeps its copy of what they had, and anything that had not reached you yet stays on their device too.

Settings and progress are each person's own

• Settings. The style checks, the font and your other choices in Editor settings… are each person's own: what a co-author chooses never changes yours. For now, a co-author's settings stay on their own device.
• Words today. Each of you has your own words today, daily goal and streak. What a co-author writes adds to the chapter's and the book's word counts, never to your words today.
• Sharing your progress. Once a co-author has written in your book, Goals and streaks in Your progress lets you choose which of your words today, daily goal and streak they may see. Nothing is shared until you tick it, and each of you chooses for yourself. It only decides what Rescriptus shows: anyone who can open the project's files can read progress.yml. For now Rescriptus shows co-authors none of it; your choice is saved for when it does.

GitHub collaborators are different

If your book is on GitHub, you can instead add someone as a collaborator on the repository. They sign in with their own GitHub account and open the repository directly, so they can write while your Rescriptus is closed, and GitHub decides what they may do. Rescriptus counts them as you: they share your settings, and what they write counts in your words today. See Connecting GitHub.

Moving the book to other storage

When a book kept in this browser is copied to other storage (on the storage page, Copy and switch), your co-authors come with it only if the new place was empty: it is then the same book, and their links keep working. Their app says the book has moved, and they choose Open again. Anything they wrote while waiting may come up once as a clash to settle, as when a file changes somewhere else.

If the new place already had files, your co-authors stay behind, and Rescriptus says so. Switching storage any other way leaves them behind too. Either way, invite them again from the book's menu, with Write with someone….

Limits

• Up to 10 co-authors in a project.
• Each co-author can write on up to 3 devices at once.
• A file too long to send through your app in one go stays on the co-author's device, and their save chip says so. Split a long chapter in two to send it.
• A co-author cannot invite anyone else: Write with someone is only on your own devices.

Typing together

Writing with someone does not show each other's typing as it happens yet: each of you writes in your own Rescriptus, and changes arrive as they are saved. To type in the same chapter at the same time and see each other's cursors, use Share live, where a guest can write in the chapters you choose for a session of up to 8 hours.

Privacy

The two apps connect directly, and what passes between them is encrypted all the way, as with Share live. Some networks, such as work or school ones, block direct connections. Where the server has a relay it carries the same encrypted data, and cannot read it. The list of your co-authors and their keys stays on your device, and their link stays on theirs.

When a co-author saves, the name you gave them is kept with the change. On GitHub it goes at the end of the commit message, so anyone who can read the repository sees it, everyone if the repository is public, and it stays in the repository's history even after you remove them. For a book kept in this browser or a folder, it stays with the earlier versions Rescriptus keeps. On Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive, History doesn't name who made a co-author's change. The privacy policy has the details.