Since Release 6.1 of openCDMS Create, it is possible for multiple users to work on a single study design. Using the File->Open menu it is possible for individual users to access study design files on their local computer or a network drive. It is also possible to access studies in the database. Note: a user must have the correct user privileges in the study to load it from the database. If you want to grant access to another user to view and edit a study in the database, use openCDMS Control to assign the user access to the study. The recommended mode for collaborating on studies is to save intermediate designs to the database and for each user to load the latest version from the database each time and resave the changed version to the database when they are finished working on it. This guarantees that the database always contains the latest version of the study and ensures that openCDMS has full control over managing the study revision and update process. If you wish to collaborate using network files, openCDMS will make a best effort to ensure that files are managed correctly within the application. Due to the variation in underlying operation systems and networks over which openCDMS obviously does not have full control, it is not possible to guarantee that this functionality will be able to work correctly in all situations. Therefore, saving to the database is the recommended method for study collaboration as described above. In the case of accessing a network file that another user already has open, openCDMS will permit access in read-only mode.