Core Document Management Components Within SharePoint Portal Server, a document library exists that enables the key components of document management functionality. Examples of this functionality include check in and check out, document version control, history tracking, document profiling with the use of metadata, and granular document security access control. Some of these features were discussed at a high level in Chapter 2. For example, check in and check Out, can be enabled or disabled on individual folders. Coordinators will need to determine the folders that require an Author or Editor to have exclusive access over the document by checking the document out. When a document is checked out, other users cannot modify the document. Version Control As discussed at a high level in Chapter 2, version control within SharePoint Portal Server is extremely important and allows for audit and recovery. Auditing is used to provide history tracking of a document. Many Authors and Editors find it helpful to know when a document has been changed, exactly what was changed within the document, and who made the change. A recovery option can be used when a document needs to be rolled back to a previous version. Versioning within SharePoint Portal Server is handled as follows : -
Versioning scheme ” Documents are referred to using a Major.Minor numeric versioning scheme. An example of this scheme is as follows: 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.0, 2,1, and so on. The first numeric in the versioning scheme (for example, 1.) refers to the major version. The second numeric (for example, .1) refers to the minor version. To view a previous version of a document, right-click on the document from within the workspace. Click the Versions tab (see Figure 4.1), select the version you want to work with, and click View Document. Figure 4.1. Within the Version tab, all previous document versions are displayed and readily accessible.  NOTE The main difference between a major version and a minor version is the fact that minor versions are incremented when checked in, and major version are incremented when published.
 For additional details about document versions, see "Document Properties and Settings," p. 266. -
Version comments ” Authors and Editors can create comments for each version of a document. Version comments allow Authors and Editors to see deltas within various versions of the document over time. They also enable Authors and Editors to browse specifically to a desired version by simply cycling through the changes that have taken place. -
An example of version comments within a document might be "Latest revision with changes according to customer feedback" (see Figure 4.2). Figure 4.2. Version comments are added as part of the document profile form completion process.  After a document is published, right-click the document, click Properties, and select the Versions tab (see Figure 4.3). Click on the version number and the version comments will be displayed in the Version Comments window. Figure 4.3. As you can see, users can utilize the version comments feature to navigate through various versions of the document according to changes that were made.  -
Auditing ” This feature within version control is used to track exactly who made a change and when the change was made. Integrated document security enables each edit of the document to be tracked and identified by security account. An administrator has to initially grant access using document level role-based security within SharePoint Portal Server. The security account is what is used to track and identify the Editor's changes, and is displayed as follows: ("DOMAINNAME\USERNAME"). Figure 4.4. In this example, the administrator made the changes to all three versions of the document. As you can see, having the ability to view the current version and who made the changes, as well as when the changes were made, is a very helpful feature.  -
Metadata change tracking ” Another important tracking mechanism is the changes to the metadata information. If an Author or Editor makes changes to the metadata (document profile) associated with a document, the version control feature tracks previous versions of the document and all changes to the metadata linked to the document. |
