In Part 1 of “Managing Word Document Reviews in Microsoft SharePoint”  I discussed how SharePoint makes document reviews more efficient. Way more efficient. In addition, I gave some tips (and provided samples) on creating company guidelines for editing Word documents stored in SharePoint.

I’d like to emphasize that *everyone* needs to create document editing guidelines that work for their company.  SharePoint makes managing documents easy, but can’t stop those with permissions from wreaking havoc in your content. It can tell you who did it, and let you throw out the damaged document and replace it with an earlier version, but you still need SME input, and it is a lot of work to enter it manually.

That being said, let’s get back to the big picture Document Management features in SharePoint. They require minimal setup, but make it easier to find, control, and manage your documents.

Finding your Documents with Metadata

When it comes to document reviews, you always know what needs to be reviewed right now, but what if you want to double-check older information? How would you find it in a large SharePoint library of documents? Tagging documents with metadata (terms specified by you) makes it easy to find specific documents quickly using SharePoint’s filter or search functions.

Metadata also makes it easy for others within your company (marketing, tech support, etc.) to zero-in on specific documents — everyone can find information, and they can look at the version and the workflow stage to determine if the information has been reviewed and approved. Not only do people find the answers they need, this will encourage reuse of existing information.

Using metadata is a three step process: Create, Assign, and Find. Once you’ve done steps 1 and 2, you make step 3 more efficient.

You create your metadata in SharePoint. Documents can be tagged with metadata in SharePoint, or in Word.

Create:

To create metadata

After you have shared your Doc-To-Help documents to SharePoint using the Share button in Doc-To-Help …

  1. Open your SharePoint Library
  2. Choose the Library tab > Click the Create Column button (the metadata will be stored in this column.)
  3. Enter a name for the column and information type (single line of text, multiple, choice, etc.) Tip: if you want to create a drop-down list of options, choose “choice”.
  4. Enter the metadata.

Assign:

After creating your metadata, you can then assign it in Word, or in SharePoint.

To assign metadata in SharePoint

  1. Open your SharePoint Library.
  2. Click the drop-down next to the document you wish to assign the metadata to.
  3. Choose Edit Properties from the menu.
  4. The column you added earlier will be displayed. Choose or enter the metadata.
  5. Click Save. The metadata will appear in the appropriate column.

To assign metadata in Word

You can assign metadata after you’ve checked a document out. Once you’ve assigned the metadata, saved the document, and checked it back in, the metadata will appear in the appropriate column.

In Word 2007:

  • Office button > Prepare > Properties. The Documentation Properties Pane will appear. You can then enter your metadata.

In Word 2010:

  • File tab > Info > Properties button (right-hand column). Choose Show Document Panel. The Documentation Properties Pane will appear. You can then enter your metadata.

Find:

When you want to find documents, you can use a filter, or search.

To filter using metadata

  1. Open your SharePoint Library.
  2. Click the drop-down next to the column that contains the metadata.
  3. Choose the metadata you would like to filter by. After selection, only documents tagged with that metadata will appear in the list.

To search using metadata

Open your SharePoint site and enter your metadata term in the Search box.

Please note that if you know the exact Document Library the document is in, you should use the Search box in that library (this will cut down on results). Also, depending on how often your SharePoint site is indexed, you may not get all results if you search on metadata that has just been assigned to a document.

Control your Documents with Permissions

You can assign permissions to your entire SharePoint site, to specific Document Libraries, and even to specific documents. Using permissions is a great way to make sure only the proper people read and/or edit your documents. In regulated environments, this is crucial. In non-regulated environments, you might want everyone to be able to read your documents, but you want to limit the number of editors.

For the Document Library: (most Libraries inherit the permissions of the site)

  1. Open your SharePoint Library
  2. Choose the Library tab > Click the Library Permissions button.

You can then create groups and assign permissions to it, or grant permissions to individual users.  The permission levels are (permission descriptions from SharePoint Help):

  • Full Control — Has full control.
  • Design —  Can view, add, update, delete, approve, and customize.
  • Contribute — Can view, add, update, and delete list items and documents.
  • Read —  Can view pages and list items and download documents.
  • Limited Access — Can view specific lists, document libraries, list items, folders, or documents when given permissions.
  • Approve —  Can edit and approve pages, list items, and documents.
  • Manage Hierarchy —  Can create sites and edit pages, list items, and documents.
  • Restricted Read —  Can view pages and documents, but cannot view historical versions or user permissions.

For a specific document:

  • Click the drop-down next to the document and choose Manage Permissions.

First, check the permissions on the document, and if necessary click the Stop Inheriting Permissions button so that you can set specific permissions for the document by user or group.

One other option for controlling access to documents is using the versioning settings.

  1. On the Library tab, choose the Library Settings button.
  2. Click the Versioning Settings link.
  3. Choose to create Major and Minor (the minor versions are the drafts) versions.
  4. Set Require Content Approval for Submitted Items to Yes.

Now you can set the draft item security so that access to documents in progress is limited.

Manage your Documents Workflows

Workflows allow you to customize the documentation review process … not the content review, but the process of getting a document from Step A (written) to Step “X” (reviewed, edited, and approved). SharePoint has a number of built-in workflow templates (Disposition approval, Three-state, Approval, Collect Feedback) that you can configure (add your reviewer names, alerts, due dates, and more). If you know how to use SharePoint Designer, you can even create your own templates.

To create a workflow for your Library

  1. Open your SharePoint Library
  2. Choose the Library tab > Click the drop-down next to the Workflow Setting button.
  3. Choose Add a Workflow.

After you have chosen a workflow template, give your workflow a name. Then configure it: start options, contact names, email messages, etc., everything that should happen as the document moves through the process. Each template has specific items that need to be configured. After you click OK, the workflow will be assigned to your library.

If you want to see if your library already has a workflow assigned to it, on the Library tab, click the Workflow Setting button.

Alerts

Want to know every time a specific document is touched? You can specify Alerts separately from workflows. If you set up an alert on a document, you will be contacted (via email or text message) if the document is changed.

  1. Click the drop-down next to the document and choose Alert Me.
  2. Choose who should be notified about changes to this document, how they should be notified, and when.

To set an alert on an entire Library, on the Library tab, click the Alert Me button.

Summing Up

You can create a great document review and workflow process by teaming up Doc-To-Help, Word, and SharePoint. They work together well, and you can pick and choose the features you want to use to create a system that works for your company.

Managing Word Document Reviews in Microsoft SharePoint — Part 1

Managing Word Document Reviews in Microsoft SharePoint — Part 3

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