Does document merge actually work when sharing & editing the same file?

[MrsRossPoldark]

My boss and I were working on the same document yesterday. She had the first copy open and I had the 'read-only and merge when available' copy.

She quit her version to go home. I then had a message to press something that I assume was 'merge' [I know - I was distracted!]. It defo didn't say 'save your copy on top of hers' and didn't respond with any 'merge options' of any sort.

Her changes have completely gone and it looks like my copy has dumped on top of hers, so she has lost 2 hours work! I assumed she must have saved whilst she was working, so tried 'restore previous version' which is usually a lifesaver, but the only earlier copy was from two hours previous. Has she just 'quit without saving', or have I been a tw@t and dumped my copy over hers without meaning to?

I am sure we have tried this before and the same thing happened so who is doing what wrongly [and is there a known bug with Outlook 2007 that means we should never ever use this ever again???]

She didn't save it.

Personally I don't ever use this option - I wait until it is not read only.

Thanks Doreenlethal: needless to say we won't be using this facility again. We work in a company that is known for using a bit of a 'cobbled' software mentality anyway so often find things like this turn up. From now on, I will just use copy n paste to add my changes. At least I know it works!

Now she knows why I usually have a few copies of documents with filenames like 'xyz - extra copy'; 'working file' and often a little folder tucked away named 'working copies'!