[type0]

Word is significantly harder to use efficiently than lets say Atom+Asciidoctor. Also Word version control is a living hell, in contrast with format like asciidoc one could use standalone tools like Mercurial and that is both powerful and easy to use.

[ido]

Have you tried teaching version control to non-programmers?

I have, and I think you highly overestimated how easy to use mercurial or these other tools are.

[type0]

> Have you tried teaching version control to non-programmers?

I had with various success, in the end it all comes down to how open minded those people are. I wish version control would be more prevalent in academia and research where it's really needed for transparency reasons, I wish more groups would also use csv, tsv ,JSON files + Python data wrangling tools instead of Excel.

[adrianmsmith]

I have various non-programmers (project managers, CEOs) checking files in and out of Subversion using TortoiseSVN on Windows and that works acceptably. About once a month they get stuck and need help but they use TortoiseSVN daily so that's still acceptable.

[nradov]

Microsoft SharePoint does basic version control and is fairly well integrated with Word. It's limited in that it basically just tracks revisions and doesn't support branching, but it's simple enough that most casual users can learn it easily.