# View and Edit at the Same Time
How Folio handles two people opening the same Document — one editor at a time, who's viewing, and how editing passes between people.
Two people can open the same Document at once. Only one of them can edit it at a time.
This page covers how Folio decides who's editing, how to tell who that is, and how editing passes from one person to the next.
## Why one editor at a time
The Salesforce platform does not support real-time co-editing the way a standalone document tool does. Folio gives editing to one person at a time so that everyone's work is preserved exactly as they wrote it.
The tradeoff is that you sometimes wait for a colleague to finish.
## How Folio knows who's editing
Every open Document tab sends a **heartbeat** roughly every 10 seconds. A tab that is in **Editing** mode and sending a fresh heartbeat holds the **edit lock**.
> **The lock belongs to the tab, not to you.** If you have the same Document open in a second browser tab, that second tab is blocked just like anyone else's would be. It's a common source of confusion — if Folio says a Document is being edited and you're certain nobody else has it open, check your own other tabs first.
If a tab stops sending heartbeats — the person closed it, switched to **Viewing**, lost connection, or put their laptop to sleep — the lock goes stale and becomes available.
## What you'll see
Folio surfaces the current state through four things in the editor.
1 **Viewer initials in the header.** The initials of everyone else who currently has the Document open appear in the [Document header](/docs/user-guide/document-editor#1-document-header). This is your at-a-glance answer to "is anyone else in here?"
2 **A blue banner naming who holds editing.** When someone else is editing, a blue banner tells you who. If you try to switch to **Editing** mode yourself, you'll see **"{name} is editing now."**
3 **The offer banner.** When the current editor stops editing or their session goes stale, viewers are offered the chance to start editing.
4 **A yellow refresh banner.** While you're viewing a Document someone else is editing, this appears once their changes are saved, offering to reload the latest content. Their edits don't stream into your view live — you pick them up when you accept the refresh.
## How editing passes to the next person
When the lock holder stops editing or their session goes stale, **every viewer gets the offer banner at the same time**. Whoever accepts it first takes the lock, and everyone else stays in Viewing mode.
To pick up editing, stay on the page and accept the offer when it appears.
**Taking the lock refreshes the Document first.** When you accept the offer, Folio loads the newest saved version before unlocking edits, so you're never editing a stale copy of what the previous person just wrote.
## Working around the one-editor limit
A few habits make this a non-issue in practice:
- **Switch to Viewing mode when you're done.** If you leave a Document sitting in Editing mode, you're holding the lock against everyone else. The [Editing / Viewing toggle](/docs/user-guide/document-editor#view-mode) is in the Utility Bar.
- **Close tabs you're not using.** A forgotten background tab in Editing mode is the most common cause of an unexplained lock.
- **Split long documents into sections people own.** Two people editing two Documents beats two people contending over one.
- **Use comments for feedback.** You don't need the edit lock to comment, so a reviewer can leave notes while the author keeps writing. Comment replies also generate [notifications](/docs/user-guide/notifications#what-triggers-a-notification).
**Related:** [Using the Folio Document Editor](/docs/user-guide/document-editor) · [Browse Document Version History](/docs/user-guide/version-history) · [Collaborate with Comments](/docs/user-guide/comments) · [What is Folio Docs?](/docs/user-guide/what-is-folio)