Various embodiments described herein provide one or more of systems, methods, software, and data structures that allow a document, or other file type, to be used to connect to a network-based conference, such as over the Internet. Some embodiments may further allow a local copy of a document, viewed by each conference participant on their local computing devices, to be used as a conferencing tool by synchronizing document views across each local document copy and edits or other modifications and notations made by each participant. As a result, an actual image of the document of a document-based conference need not be shared. Rather, only the edits or other modifications and notations made by each participant are captured, transmitted, and recreated and displayed within the local document copies of the other participants.