SharePoint 2010 - Enterprise Document Management

SharePoint provides a good amount of features supporting Enterprise Document Management.

The main features supported by SharePoint 2010 are:

1. Metadata
2. Versioning
3. Alerts
4. Workflows
5. Check Out
6. Search
7. Co Authoring
8. Auditing

Versioning

SharePoint supports public, major and minor versioning support. To enable versioning use the Library Settings > Versioning settings option.

Metadata

We can store information about the library items as Metadata using Columns. For adding Metadata for any library item use the Library Settings > Create Column option.

Using Enterprise Keywords we can tag a particular document. As they are indexed they are searchable and provide meaningful organizational capabilities.

Types of Libraries

SharePoint 2010 provides various types of in-built document libraries.

Library Type	Description
Document Library	For all document types
Asset Library	For images, video files
Connection Library	Storing connection files
Report Library	KPI (Key Performance Indicator), BI files
Slide Library	PowerPoint Slide files
Picture Library	Picture files
Form Library	InfoPath Form files

Document ID Service

The document ID feature creates document identifiers that can be used to retrieve items independent of their current location. The document ID service is responsible for providing the Document ID feature.

When a document is added to the collection SharePoint assigns the Document ID to it. The administrator needs to configure the Persistence setting of the Document ID.

To enable this feature use the Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Collection Features item.

Click on the Activate button to make the service running.

Document Set

Document Set is a new feature in SharePoint 2010. It is similar to a zip file and a good solution while working with a group of files. While working with a project, people usually needed a set of files instead of a single file. So the Document Set feature is really useful once we know how to use it.

To enable this feature use the Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Collection Features item.

Click on the Activate button to make the service running.

The creation of document and document sets are discussed in the upcoming article.

References

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee559302.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/introduction-to-document-sets-HA101782466.aspx

Summary

In this article we have explored the Document Management Features supported by SharePoint. The versioning, check out and co-authoring features provides the SharePoint end users a great tool in hand.