Abstract: A method, system, and computer usable program product for synchronizing documents by designating a local server are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A data network is formed that includes several data processing systems, each data processing system having a separate version of a document. A candidate data processing system is designated from the several data processing systems as a local server. Separate versions of the document are sent from the several data processing systems to the local server. The separate versions of the document are synchronized with a baseline version of the document to form a synchronized version of the document. The synchronized version of the document is returned to the several data processing systems. In addition, the data network may be formed if the data connectivity to an original server has been lost.