Documents

Documents can be an important part of your use of Project Server. The document library provides your project team one easy place to find all documents associated with your project. You also have the ability to check out and version the documents to help control document changes. You can attach documents to particular tasks, too. For example, suppose that one of your tasks is Complete Business Feasibility Study, and it will take Russ 20 hours to perform this activity. When Russ is finished, he could attach the document itself to the task he is assigned.

The documents management function is designed so that only those assigned to the project can work on the documents for that project. No other people can access the documents unless the project manager gives express permission to a user to use the site. See "Permissions in WSS" earlier in this chapter for more information about how permissions are established for a WSS site. This requires some administrative overhead for the project manager to grant permissions, but this level of security may be exactly what an organization needs. Some organizations, however, want a completely open site for documents, so that team members and other people from across the organization can look at and share documents. If your organization needs this capability, consider using SharePoint Portal Services (SPS).

When you select Documents from the top menu bar in PWA, you see a list of project libraries. The document libraries are grouped by My Projects, which are projects that have task assignments for you; Other Projects, which you have permission to access; and Public Documents, which all Project Server users may access. The Go to Selected Project Workspace selection on the side pane allows you to go to the workspace for the selected project if you want to view all the documents, risks, and issues related to a project you select.

TIP

You may also want to store the typical forms your organization uses for project management activities, such as the Project Charter template or a Communications Plan template, in the Public Documents library. You could also store your documents for your Project Server deployment project, such as the Project Server configuration requirements, in the Public library.

You can open a project document library by selecting a project link from the list. Graphical folder icons are displayed with the name and description of each folder. By default, each project library has a Shared Documents folder created for it. You can also add new folders to contain various documents related to a project as shown in Figure 18.25.

Figure 18.25. Document libraries for a project.

For example, you might create folders for project management documents, specifications, business requirements, project planning, testing, or any other categories that would help your team members easily find documents pertaining to the project.

To create a folder for a project library, on the Project Document Libraries page, click on Create Document Library as shown previously in Figure 18.25.

You then see a page called New Document Library where you can set some general properties for the folder:

Name and Description Name the folder and provide a description of the folder so that team members know what kinds of documents they can find in the folder.
Navigation Select Yes if you want the library to show on the Quick Launch bar, which is the left side pane of the project workspace (this does not display when you are in Project Web Access itself), or select No if you do not want the library to show in the Quick Launch bar.
Document Versions Select Yes if you want document versions to be created each time you edit a document in the library, or select No if you do not want versions for the documents in the folder.
Document Template Indicate the document template (such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) based on the drop-down list. Note that the kinds of documents you store in the folder are not limited to the applications in the drop-down list, and you can have several kinds of documents in the same folder.

When you are finished setting up the folder properties, click Create.

NOTE

If you need to change any of the settings for the folder, select the folder and then click on Modify Settings and Columns in the side pane. Select Change General Settings at the end of the General Settings section to make the changes.

To view the list of documents stored in a folder, click on the folder or folder name. The displayed list includes document names and other important information about each document as shown in Figure 18.26. You can change the columns available and the values in them based on the kind of information you want to have for your document.

Figure 18.26. Documents listed in a folder. Note the status and other information for the document.

PAGE 447.

Uploading or Creating a Document

To create or upload a document for the project, you must be a member of the Team Members site group, meaning that you have an assignment within the project schedule. The project manager of a project has full permissions to add and modify documents for the project.

To create a document, perform the following steps:

1.	Click on New Document in the toolbar above the document list.
2.	Word opens (or the default document application as defined for the library if available on the client machine), and you may start creating a document. When you are finished, click Save.
3.	You are asked to save the document to a particular location (do not change the location for the document to be saved from the location showing). Name the document and click Save.
4.	An edit form appears where you can fill in the Owner from a drop-down list (if other than the default showing, which is "None") and Status from a drop-down list (Draft, Ready for Review, or Final).
5.	Click OK. When you close the application, the document appears in the document library list with a New indicator next to it.

To upload a document, click on Upload Document in the toolbar above the document list. An edit form displays where you can fill in the document data, as follows:

Overwrite Existing File(s)? Leave the default check mark if you want to overwrite any previous file when you are saving a document with the same name to WSS.
Name Enter the name of the document. (This is required.) Make sure that this briefly yet clearly describes the document.
Upload Multiple Files If you have more than one file to upload at one time, click on this hyperlink. A screen appears that lets you find the document folder you want to select files from. You can check each file you want to upload.
Owner Click on the arrow on the drop-down box and select the person who is the manager or owner of the document.
Status Using the default values, the document can be Draft, Ready for Review, or Final. When the document is uploaded, it defaults to Ready for Review status.
Linking You can associate a document to tasks, other issues, or risks contained within the project workspace by using the links at the bottom of the Upload Document form.

PAGE 455.

When a document is defined for a project, a graphical icon is displayed adjacent to the project within the Project Center Summary view. If a document is attached to a specific working task, a graphical icon appears within the Project Center detail views. If you select a document graphical icon, PWA opens the appropriate project document library for review and updates.

New Folder, Filter, and Other Actions in a Document List

You can create subfolders within a document library. To do so, click on New Folder in the action bar. A new screen appears where you may name the folder.

To view the document lists on your project in different ways, you can select Filter on the toolbar above the documents list and use the filters from the drop-down lists that appear above each field on the list. For example, you could view only those documents in a Draft status. After enabling the filtering function, the Filter button changes the Change Filter or Hide Filter choices to change or remove the filtering you have applied.

Edit in Datasheet

The documents list can also be mass edited by using the Edit in Datasheet option on the action bar. This presents the data elements from the view in a datasheet form. You can edit the documents list more easily and more quickly than in the Standard view.

TIP

In the Datasheet view, select the Task pane and explore the various Microsoft Office tools you can use to analyze and report on issues. For example, you can use Create an Excel PivotTable Report to chart your documents' trends.

All Document Libraries

When you select All Document Libraries, you are returned to the main project document library page.

Actions on Documents

Hovering the mouse pointer over the document name without clicking on the hyperlink displays a pull-down list of options. You can view or edit the properties of the document, check out the document, edit the document using Microsoft Office Word, view the document version history, set email alerts, and start a discussion about the document, as shown in Figure 18.27. These same selections can be seen in a different format if you select the View Properties or Edit Properties selections for the document, as shown in Figure 18.28.

Figure 18.27. Drop-down list to select action on a document.

Figure 18.28. Functions available after selecting View Properties or Edit Properties.

Clicking on the document name hyperlink opens the document for viewing in a web-based facility. If you want to edit the document, always choose the Edit function from the drop-down list.

The following list describes the actions you can take on documents:

View Properties and Edit Properties You can view and change the information about a document via properties. If you choose to Edit Properties, you change the same information you created when you uploaded the document as described previously. You can also select actions on documents as shown in Figure 18.28.
Edit in the Document Application Use this function to open and edit the document in the application it was created in. The particular application displays, such as Edit in Microsoft Office Word.
Delete Allows you to delete the document. You may want to change the permissions for this library if you do not want team members to delete documents.
Check Out Select this to work on the document so that you are the only one who can modify the document, although others can still read it. When the document is checked out, you can see who the document is checked out to in the document list as shown in Figure 18.29. After you select this option, you still need to select Edit in whatever application is appropriate. Also, if the document is checked out, this option on the drop-down list changes to Check In. If for some reason a document is checked out, but not checked in as expected, the administrator can check the document back in.
Figure 18.29. A document checked out in the document list.

NOTE

You can edit a document without checking it out. You will have a short-term lock on the document, but the lock will expire, and if someone else checks it out in the meantime, that person's check-out lock will take precedence, and you will not be able to save your changes under the same document name.
Version History This selection shows you the various versions of the document. You can select each to view dates and times, see who modified the document, and delete versions, as shown in Figure 18.30.
Figure 18.30. Version history for a document.
Alert Me Select this to get email notifications about changes to the document. You can receive these emails on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule.

PAGE 455.
Discuss Select this to use the discussion feature in Internet Explorer.

Actions on the Document Library from the Side Pane

You can perform some common actions on a document library as described in the following sections.

Select a View

You can choose to view the document in a list via All Documents or via an Explorer view. The Explorer view provides more flexible navigation in moving, copying, and renaming the documents in the library, which is not allowed in the normal documents lists.

Alert Me

You can use the Alert Me option at the folder level to receive an email notifying you of any changes for all documents in the particular document folder. You can choose to be notified when documents are added, changed, or deleted, or for all changes. You can also choose to be notified immediately or in a daily or weekly summary.

NOTE

This is different from the Alert Me function described previously for individual documents. You can select to be emailed about individual documents and all documents on a project.

Export to Spreadsheet

You can export the documents list to an Excel spreadsheet as shown in Figure 18.31. This is especially handy for taking the list of documents to meetings to discuss and check status within the meeting itself, or for sharing the documents list with others who may not have access to Project Server. If you make changes to any of the data items in Excel, click the Synchronize with Project Server selection on the side pane to bring the changes you made in Excel into Project Server.

Figure 18.31. The documents list exported to an Excel spreadsheet.

Modify Settings and Columns

This feature allows you to make changes to the documents columns and values to customize the documents repository to match your documents management standards.