All too often people share documents by sending the files around in e-mail, when there's a better way that takes only moments to learn

In short: keep the Microsoft Office documents on a network drive to which all participants have access. Microsoft Office manages access to the files, far better than you can. If Jane has the file open when someone else attempts to bring it up, Microsoft Word will say that the document is in use (by Jane) and give Joe the option to open it as read-only (which sometimes is all that's needed) or to be notified when the file is unlocked again. (Unfortunately, none of the options include "automatically send Jane an e-mail message to tell her to hurry up already," but that cattle-prod technology has not yet been perfected.)

The benefit: Everyone works on one version of the file, so it's impossible for things to get out of sync. Your e-mail inbox (and mail server ) isn't stuffed with contradictory versions of important documents. And, since-presumably-your network servers are backed up on a regular basis (far more so than are most users' laptop computers), the documents may be more secure as well.

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