Architecture for emphasizing changes in collaborative or shared documents. A user can now quickly see what content was changed (hence, unread content) since the last time the user viewed the document or page. A tool automatically tracks and annotates the new content and author of the content for collaboration users. The architecture provides author highlighting on a page or document, which is turned on automatically when the user goes to the page or document. Widgets are displayed in association with the unread content that indicate which user authored all or portions of new unread content. Synchronization of the content update document content so that other users can readily see what is new and the author. A master file is created that stores the emphasis information and associated author information. The file can be stored at any location that is accessibly by the collaborative clients.