# real-time collaborative text editors

Multiple people editing a document at the same time seems impossible, but now there are three different tools for doing that.

- [EtherPad](http://etherpad.com/)
    - [EtherPad: Real-time Editing with JavaScript](http://ejohn.org/blog/etherpad-real-time-editing-with-javascript/)
    - [Comparison of SubEthaEdit and EtherPad](http://db.tidbits.com/article/9869)
- [Google Docs](http://docs.google.com) – “allows simultaneous editing that’s not in real time. Rather, each save pushes a copy to other active editors, but you can’t see each other type or delete.” – from [Comparison of EtherPad and SubEthaEdit](http://db.tidbits.com/article/9869).
- [SubEthaEdit](http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/)

*Please add comments here:*

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- [TextFlow – A different take on collaborative editing](http://www.textflow.com/)

- [http://log.emonk.net/post/213952350/collaboration-is-not-communication](http://log.emonk.net/post/213952350/collaboration-is-not-communication)

- I switched to a Mac partly to use SubEthaEdit, then didn’t need it enough to buy it. Didn’t know Google Docs could do this, but EtherPad, which I just heard about, seems easy enough to show and use right away in a meeting. Check out the [90 second EtherPad video](http://etherpad.com/ep/about/screencast?from=mainpage). – *Mike Franks 11-19-08*