Configuring a Library

Each document library contains settings that you can change from the library’s Document Library settings page. You navigate to these settings by opening the document library and then clicking the Settings link. In addition, you can perform actions for the document library by using the Actions link within the document library.

By default, a document library opens in Standard view.

Sometimes, Standard view is not sufficient for what you need to do. For example, if you need to sort a list of documents quickly without creating a new view, you want to use Datasheet view. If you want to open the library by using Windows Explorer instead of your browser, you can do this from the Actions menu as well. In fact, from the Actions menu, you can perform the following actions.

• Edit the library’s contents from the Datasheet view. You can select this view when you wish to sort a library’s contents quickly without going through the process of creating a new view based on sorted metadata.

  

• Open the library using Windows Explorer. You can use this view to drag folders and files into the library.

  

  Important  

  Unless instructed by your System Administrator, you should not modify, add, or delete files in the Forms folder using the Windows Explorer view. This is mainly due to the fact that if you accidentally delete a template file in a forms folder, you can’t copy another template file into that folder. In addition, modifying forms in the form folder is an advanced developer activity that non-technical personnel should avoid attempting.

• Connect the library to your Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 client to store files offline, which was discussed in Chapter 5.

• Export the content items in the library to a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet. You can do this if you have a large list of documents and need to modify metadata on the documents quickly and in bulk.

  

• View the document library via Really Simple Syndication (RSS). You can use this view if you want to aggregate a view of multiple document libraries in one location and then access those libraries from a single location (your RSS viewer).

  

• Create alerts for the document library.

The Settings menu contains three basic options: Create Column, Create View, and Document Library Settings. Each option is discussed in the following text.