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Part I: Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007
documents. The ability to take advantage of such SharePoint features requires no great technical skill and
little training. Other features of SharePoint, such as being able to start an automated workflow to route a
document for approval directly from a single program, are great time savers.
Document libraries also allow you to create views (depending on your permissions) on documents
contained within the libraries, a huge advantage when you are dealing with large numbers of business
documents. Document library views provide you with a way to create subsets of documents that meet
certain criteria. However, when working with large numbers of documents, forward planning really
pays off. Giving some thought to the information you are going to place into SharePoint really pays off
over time as your document libraries grow. Consider some the following questions: How might you
classify documents, — by type, author, subject, or date created? If the classification is to be by subject,
what are the subjects? One term you will hear over and over with respect to SharePoint and documents
is “ metadata. ”
Metadata
While not strictly a feature, metadata is an important concept you will need to be aware of when
working in a WSS environment. Metadata is simply information about information. For example, when
storing a customer document you may want to add additional information such as an “ Order Status ”
classification. Why do this? There are many reasons you may need to classify information, including
helping to organize large amounts of documents based upon their classification — for example, by
grouping yearly or monthly invoices together — thereby improving your colleagues ’ ability to find
documents using SharePoint search features. Once you begin a classification process within SharePoint
Server 2007, you can begin to add the categories to the SharePoint search interface, making targeted
searching by category possible. Later in the book, you will learn about the record management features
available to you when working with SharePoint.
It is really worth stressing that information classification is a huge topic and should always play a part in
the deployment of technologies such as SharePoint. If you have never heard of metadata, you can be sure
you have already used it. When working with Microsoft Word, have a look at the document properties
(File
Properties), which are in fact metadata providing you with additional information about the
document such as author and date created. Referring back to the real world, document classification is
an area that I have found individuals have some problems with. While WSS and MOSS make it easy to
share information, they also bring changes to the way people work. Rather than simply saving a
document, you may be asked to also add a classification, and, being honest, some people find this an
additional burden. Implemented correctly, however, adding classification rarely involves more than one
mouse click.
The current release of MOSS also gives you the ability to associate your own in - house document
templates with SharePoint. SharePoint content types and templates provide a powerful way to manage
documents and other content across an organization. Content types and document templates are
examined in detail in Chapters 3 and 7 .
Document libraries also provide you with the ability to meet both in - house and external legal requirements
with respect to document and record management. Information and record management is, again,
something that an organization must think through before beginning to use SharePoint. The information
management policy should be put in place in partnership with your organization ’ s technical staff.
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