4. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer program instructions for redrawing an electronic document, the computer program instructions defining the steps of: displaying, with an online document editing system, a visual representation of an electronic document; receiving an input to affect a modification of the electronic document, the modification comprising a plurality of document change operations to be applied to the electronic document, the plurality of document change operations comprising inserting characters into the electronic document, wherein the receiving an input further comprises receiving a plurality of commands, each command in the plurality of commands received from each user in a plurality of users, wherein the plurality of commands comprises the plurality of document change operations; modifying the electronic document by causing each of the plurality of document change operations to be applied to the electronic document to generate a modified electronic document; storing metadata associated with each of the plurality of document change operations; determining a first plurality of redraws based on the stored metadata, each redraw in the first plurality of redraws corresponding to a document change operation in the plurality of document change operations; prior to performing a redraw of the electronic document and without performing a redraw of the electronic document, reducing a number of redraws in the first plurality of redraws by combining two or more redraws in the first plurality of redraws to generate a second plurality of redraws, the second plurality of redraws used to render the plurality of document change operations that have been applied to the electronic document, wherein a number of redraws in the second plurality of redraws is less than the number of redraws in the first plurality of redraws; and performing a redraw of a portion of the visual representation of the electronic document based on the second plurality of redraws to reflect changes made to the electronic document by applying the plurality of document change operations, such that the visual representation of the electronic matches the modified electronic document, wherein the performing a redraw is based on logic instructions indicative of when the visual representation should be refreshed, wherein the performing a redraw of a portion of the visual representation of the electronic document based on the second plurality of redraws further comprises: performing a redraw of a portion of the visual representation of the electronic document on a plurality of client devices, each particular client device in the plurality of client devices operated by a particular user in the plurality of users.
4. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer program instructions for redrawing an electronic document, the computer program instructions defining the steps of: displaying, with an online document editing system, a visual representation of an electronic document; receiving an input to affect a modification of the electronic document, the modification comprising a plurality of document change operations to be applied to the electronic document, the plurality of document change operations comprising inserting characters into the electronic document, wherein the receiving an input further comprises receiving a plurality of commands, each command in the plurality of commands received from each user in a plurality of users, wherein the plurality of commands comprises the plurality of document change operations; modifying the electronic document by causing each of the plurality of document change operations to be applied to the electronic document to generate a modified electronic document; storing metadata associated with each of the plurality of document change operations; determining a first plurality of redraws based on the stored metadata, each redraw in the first plurality of redraws corresponding to a document change operation in the plurality of document change operations; prior to performing a redraw of the electronic document and without performing a redraw of the electronic document, reducing a number of redraws in the first plurality of redraws by combining two or more redraws in the first plurality of redraws to generate a second plurality of redraws, the second plurality of redraws used to render the plurality of document change operations that have been applied to the electronic document, wherein a number of redraws in the second plurality of redraws is less than the number of redraws in the first plurality of redraws; and performing a redraw of a portion of the visual representation of the electronic document based on the second plurality of redraws to reflect changes made to the electronic document by applying the plurality of document change operations, such that the visual representation of the electronic matches the modified electronic document, wherein the performing a redraw is based on logic instructions indicative of when the visual representation should be refreshed, wherein the performing a redraw of a portion of the visual representation of the electronic document based on the second plurality of redraws further comprises: performing a redraw of a portion of the visual representation of the electronic document on a plurality of client devices, each particular client device in the plurality of client devices operated by a particular user in the plurality of users. 5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the computer program instructions defining the step of combining two or more redraws in the first plurality of redraws to generate a second plurality of redraws, wherein the number of redraws in the second plurality of redraws is less than the number of redraws in the first plurality of redraws, comprise computer program instructions defining the step of: combining two or more redraws according to a set of redraw merging rules.