10.7. Summary

In this chapter you learned that:

• The traditional file system is not enough anymore. It is much too easy to create file chaos, where few, if any, have control of the information stored.

• Traditional document management systems, DMSs, are often very advanced and hard to use, which may be an obstacle when implementing a DMS in an organization.

• Traditional DMSs are not always so well integrated into MS Office.

• SharePoint enables you to create new columns for document libraries that contain metadata or properties for documents.

• Using SharePoint's view, documents can be sorted, presented, and grouped in a large number of ways, based on the column settings for the document library.

• By default SharePoint does not allow all file types to be stored in a document library, but that is easy to fix. However, be sure to protect your document library with SharePoint-enabled antivirus solutions.

• Each document library may have individual permission settings. All settings will be valid for all documents in that library.

• SharePoint allows unique permission settings for libraries and lists, plus folders and individual list items and documents.

• Create alerts when you want to be notified that a specific document or a folder has been updated.

• To keep track of changes in lists and libraries, you can also choose to configure them to be RSS feeds, then use Outlook 2007 as an RSS client.

• You can lock a file for editing by using Check Out; this will remain active until the user does a check in.

• An administrator can break an active checkout.

• SharePoint supports version history. However, by default it is disabled; when activated it will store any number of versions for all documents in a folder.

• SharePoint 2007 only stores the changes, not the complete document, when the document is updated.

• Using MS Office 2007, a user will have access to a lot of SharePoint specific features, such as Check Out/Check In, version history, document properties, workflows, and undelete functionality.

• Use Access Datasheet for fast editing of document properties and for managing columns and their position on the page. This requires that the local client have MS Access 2007 installed.

• SharePoint supports content approval but will not send e-mail to the person who should approve any modification. Solve this by using workflows.

• A Document Workspace is a team site that contains a copy of a document; this copy can be updated by several users. When done, you will publish this document back to its source location.

• Create network drives, such as F:, or web folders, such as Shared Documents on IT to make it possible to view information in SharePoint as a file share.

In the next chapter, you will learn more about building intranets and extranets, using SharePoint 2007.