A computing device includes a processing unit, and a memory with instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to create: a document processing module that processes the creation and editing of document content; and a metadata processing module that generates, monitors and stores metadata for a document on the computing device, the metadata processing module generating lock creation metadata that include information about a new lock that is created when a user begins to edit a portion of a document, lock removal metadata that includes information about removing a lock, and lock deletion metadata that includes information about deleting a lock, the metadata processing module writing lock creation metadata to both a data channel and to a separate metadata channel, the metadata processing module writing lock removal metadata to the data channel and the metadata processing module writing lock deletion metadata to the metadata channel.