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cmpmYou can always take a look on SVN but it would be better not to do so with important data because sometimes it is hard to understand the logic of it. I've seen many problems coming in from beginners. For them MS Share Point or other solutions seems to be better.
What is so disturbing in SVN?
You don't have true real time collaboration at all. You can't see what other users are doing with document while they editing it. IIRC if you want to edit some file from repository you have to check it out (reserve). In this state no one can see changes made by you until you commit the changes and "check in" the file. During this process other users can see document from the time right before locking. Now they have two possibilities:
1. they will wait 'till the end of your work and then they will check out the same file (and refresh it's view) to work with - all changes will be visible for them,
2. they will not wait and start editing documents - changes made by them will be saved in separate branch of version tree. There will be possibility to see (ex.) two parallel versions but at the end someone will have to merge them (if you want one version only). Merging can be done easier for simple text files because many comparing applications have no problems with them. In the case of other data (ex. DOC files) it is harder to achieve.
The first thing that users often forget is to check files in, what generates unnecessary mess with too much parallel versions of the same document or simply locks the files even for many days. Next problem might come from inexperienced users. I've seen few times complete work loss because people were bored of checking all differences during merging process and they simply overwrote everything.
I know I might look like complains-oriented person but I just want to warn you about the risk. On the other hand: SVN is priceless for source code management and has more pros than cons for such purpose. In experienced hands branching is very helpful for testing different solutions, making mods or simultaneous bug fixing. I will always recommend it for coders but will advise looking for different way for the rest of the world
