Copying plan files backwards and forwards by email attachment
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No effort to set up.
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Time taken to email plans.
Requires careful coordination if more than one person is editing a plan.
You have to be careful not to lose changes by copying an old file over a new one.
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Storing the plan file on a USB memory stick
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No synchronization problems.
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Requires a USB memory stick.
Only one person can be accessing the plan at any time.
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Shared network drive.
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A plan will be locked when one user has it open to write. Other users will only be able to open it as ‘read only’, preventing conflicting changes.
Users that have opened the plan as read-only will be notified of any changes and be given the option to update.
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Requires access to a shared network drive.
File locking can be restrictive when you have multiple users trying to access a file.
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Store your plan files in a Dropbox, synchronised across all your machines.
(Do not synchronise your Program files\PerfectTablePlan folder, this could cause all sort of problems)
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Changes on one machine are automatically synched to all other machines. Conflicts (.e.g. two users making changes to the same file at the same time) are handled automatically.
Easily manage sharing with other users on a plan by plan basis.
You can still access your plan even if you have no Internet access.
Dropbox keeps a 1 month history of changes and allows edits and deletions to be undone.
Works across Windows and Mac OS X.
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Requires a small amount of effort to set-up.
Changes only sync to other machines when you have Internet access.
If 2 users simultaneously edit the same plan on different machines at the same time you will end up with 2 versions of the plan.
An encrypted copy of your data is transmitted to and stored on the Dropbox server. This may not be appropriate for highly confidential plans.
Dropbox requires a payment if you want to store more than 2GB of file.
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