If you answered yes, here are four reasons to stop doing this:

1. Time delays – Edits cannot happen in real time. You write the document, send it, they review and edit it, add comments, then they send it back to you. You receive it and make the changes, then send a revised version back to them. Meanwhile, they’ve moved on to some other task. Now you’re waiting for their second review.
2. Version control – Each time you create or edit a Word doc, you save it before you send it. And the recipient who edits it does the same. No matter how careful you may be with naming protocols, the fact remains that there are multiple versions of that document out there, and there is no guarantee that an older version won’t be used or distributed improperly.
3. Lack of collaboration – Because reviews can’t take place in real time, there cannot be any real-time, on-screen “conversation” among collaborators, increasing the potential for miscommunication and a poor flow of ideas in the document.
4. Impractical for life on the move – When you’re offsite and mobile, it’s frustrating to have to try to make edits to a document that can only be accessed from one machine.