SharePoint 2010 - Document Management - Part 5

In this part of my Document Management series I would like to talk about versioning. Every list and library in SharePoint can use versioning. I will focus at the document library for this article.

Versioning will not automatically be enabled for a document library. To enable this feature you have to:

• Select the library
• Click in the ribbon at Library and Library Settings
• Click at Versioning settings

You are now presented with the configuration screen for versioning. You have to make a couple decisions:

1. Do I want to save published versions or also drafts?
2. How many versions do I want to save?
3. Is everyone allowed to read the drafts?
4. Do I want my users to check out a document before editing?

That's it! But these are important questions, so keep on reading:

Type of version 

There are two type of versions available:

1. Major
2. Draft

You have to make the decision if you want to work with major (1.0, 2.0, 3.0) versions or allow your users the create drafts (1.1, 1.2, 1.3). 

Amount of versions

Don't forget to set a limit to the amount of versions because every version will be saved in the database. This means that a 10 MB document with 10 versions will take up 100 MB in the database. This can grow fast!

Readers and drafts

The cool thing about working with drafts is that you can work on a document and publish it when it's finished. All the users with read permissions can now view the new version. This is a great feature in project sites because the project members can keep working on a document and the other users can only view the previously published version.

Check in / out

You should turn on this feature so users are obligated to check out a document. Also enable the Checked out to column in the view of the library. Every time a document is modified other users can see which users is modifying the document.

You are now set to use the versioning feature! Every time the document is checked out and changed the user has to check in the document and gets the following options:

The user has to select the version type (major or draft) and if the document needs to be checked out again after checking in. Don't forget to tell your users to use the Comments box to give a short overview of the changes they made.

There is an important aspect you need to remember. It is not possible, through SharePoint, to view the actual changes made inside the document! There is an option in Word to do this so check that out.

At any time it is possible to see the version history of a document. Just enable the drop down menu and click at Version History:

All the previous versions are displayed. You are now able to restore previous versions. Just enable the drop down menu at the date and time field and choose restore. This version will be restored and  set as a new version (for example 2.1 or 3.). You can always view the document itself by click at the date and time. The document will open in the Office client application.

Tips and tricks

The amount of versions
Please don't forget that every version will be saved in the database! As mentioned before, a 10 MB document with 10 versions will take up 100 MB in your database. See if you can delete previous versions from time to time.

The changes made to the document
It is not possible to get an overview of the changes made in the document itself. You have to use the features of Microsoft Office. Please advice your users to use the comment box after creating a new version.

Co-authoring and check in/out
In the first part of this series I talked about co-authoring in Word. This will not be possible if the check in/out option is enabled.

Posted in: Document Management, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Online 2010, Versioning