Creating and Configuring Your Folder Hierarchy

                 

 
Special Edition Using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
By Robert  Ferguson

Table of Contents
Chapter  10.   Managing Folders And Documents


Configuring the Documents folder is a large part of preparing for document management and collaboration within the workspace. The Documents folder is the folder that contains all of the folders and documents within the workspace. This folder is an enhanced folder and, by default, is configured with the Everyone group assigned the Reader role and the user account that created the workspace as Coordinator.

The Document Library

Within the Documents folder, you begin constructing your folder hierarchy by identifying which types of folders you will need to use for the various collections of documents within your document library. You will need to create a folder structure within the workspace that reflects the organizational method you choose for your documents. There are four essential ways to organize your documents.

The quickest and perhaps simplest organizational method is to reproduce existing folder structures, making any needed modifications to accommodate desired document management features as you go. Since you can drag a folder and its contents into the workspace, where it inherits the settings from its parent folder, minimal administrative intervention would be required. This folder structure is also the most intuitive for users since it re-creates a familiar environment.

The second option centers on creating folder structures for documents with like security and management requirements. Since the only security setting at the document level is Deny Access, collecting documents with similar security characteristics set at the folder level provides significant administrative advantages. For example, if documents can be grouped generally by department and then more granularly by the workgroups within each department, folders could be created for each department and workgroup in turn .

The third option focuses on the document publishing process. Using this method, folders are created in a structure that reflects delineations in approval requirements. Again, using inheritance, all documents within a series of folders whose parent folder was configured with a given approval route would all acquire that approval route requirement. This greatly simplifies locating and browsing documents for both authors and approvers.

The forth option involves creating folders based on similarities in document content to enhance the results of search queries. There are situations when searches on large numbers of documents traditionally yield poor results, because words commonly used in the search criteria do not actually occur within the documents themselves . To overcome this problem, you can use document profiles to apply metadata to documents. As previously discussed, metadata is additional descriptive information for the document that is not inherently part of the document's content.

For example, you may have a wealth of documents detailing information about various types of chairs, tables, couches, and so on, but they might not all necessarily contain the word "furniture." By adding "furniture" to the keywords field of a file's document profile, it would be identified correctly in future searches.

TIP

Simplicity is important. When planning, resist the urge to employ features or capabilities that are not specifically needed to meet your operational requirements. While leveraging advanced features is appealing, it adds additional complexity that can greatly affect overall administrative demands and introduce possible difficulties without necessarily providing a justifiable level of utility in return.



                 
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Special Edition Using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
Special Edition Using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
ISBN: 0789725703
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 286

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