Real-time collaboration
Cursors, presence, comments, version history.
Every Dalea document is multiplayer by default. There is nothing to enable, no "share" toggle — anyone in the workspace with the right role can open the same document and edit alongside you in real time.
What you'll see
- Cursors — coloured carets with your collaborators' names hover where they are typing. Each user gets a stable colour for the session.
- Selections — when someone selects text, you'll see the highlighted region in their colour.
- Presence indicator — small avatar stack at the top right of the document shows who else is here right now.
- Connection status — a tiny pill in the bottom right says "Synced", "Reconnecting…", or "Offline". Edits made while offline are queued and replay when you reconnect.
How it works
Conceptually, every edit is an atomic operation that commutes with every other edit. Two people can simultaneously bold the same word while a third deletes it, and all three operations land in a sane final state — no merge prompt, no overwrite, no lost work.
Edits are broadcast to peers in real time and persisted to durable storage continuously. There is no save button and no debounce delay; synchronisation is instant.
Comments
Hover any block. The right margin shows a small "+" button. Click to add a comment;
optionally @-mention a collaborator. The comment is anchored to the block — if the
block moves, the comment moves with it.
Comments support threaded replies and resolve/unresolve states. Resolved comments disappear from the margin but remain searchable.
Version history
Open … → Version history from the document header.
- Manual snapshots — give a version a name like "Submission draft v3" or "Pre-IACUC review". They're lightweight and free; create them liberally.
- Auto snapshots — Dalea creates one whenever the last collaborator disconnects, preserving "what we left off with".
- Diff viewer — pick two versions; see added, removed and modified blocks side-by-side. Cell-level diffs for tables.
- Restore — non-destructive. Restoring v3 onto v7 creates v8 = v3, preserving v7 in the history.
Permissions and the read-only mode
If your workspace role doesn't grant edit permission on documents, the editor opens in read-only mode: blocks render normally, but typing does nothing and the slash menu is hidden. Comments are still available to Commenters and above.
If a document is created from a locked template, the lock configuration further restricts what even Editors can change. See Templates and locking.