16. A system for editing documents on the Internet, the system comprising: at least one processor; and memory encoding computer executable instruction that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method comprising: processing at least one request from at least one client to display and edit a document; extracting content from the document in response to the processing of the at least one request to form extracted content; inserting the extracted content into a modified version of the document that can be edited by a given client, wherein the extracted content comprises a plurality of runs, each of the plurality of runs comprising a series of continuous elements, the series of continuous elements in a first run in the plurality of runs having a different text formatting than the series of continuous elements in a second run in the plurality of runs, the plurality of runs utilized to permit preservation of formatting changes that are not understood by a simple text editor; and merging the document and changes made to the modified version of the document to update the document with only the changes made to the modified version of the document while leaving a remainder of the document intact by preserving original features, look, and style associated with the document.
16. A system for editing documents on the Internet, the system comprising: at least one processor; and memory encoding computer executable instruction that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method comprising: processing at least one request from at least one client to display and edit a document; extracting content from the document in response to the processing of the at least one request to form extracted content; inserting the extracted content into a modified version of the document that can be edited by a given client, wherein the extracted content comprises a plurality of runs, each of the plurality of runs comprising a series of continuous elements, the series of continuous elements in a first run in the plurality of runs having a different text formatting than the series of continuous elements in a second run in the plurality of runs, the plurality of runs utilized to permit preservation of formatting changes that are not understood by a simple text editor; and merging the document and changes made to the modified version of the document to update the document with only the changes made to the modified version of the document while leaving a remainder of the document intact by preserving original features, look, and style associated with the document. 18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the modified version of the document is in a format that is compatible with the given client to be used for editing the document.