SharePoint Knowledge Base

In any company there are almost always many documents that pertain to basically everything in a company. Most of these documents usually need to be edited by multiple people, but what is a good way to collaboratively work on documents through SharePoint? Document libraries in SharePoint allow documents to be in a centralized location where everyone can access them and from there they can be checked out, edited, and then checked back in. This system allows multiple people to edit a document without accidently overriding someone else's work which is good news for a SharePoint consultant!

How to Open and Save a Document

When you are in Office and your system is connected to the Internet, you can open an existing document from a document library to work with it on your local computer, then save your changes in the library.

Steps:

• Open an Office application. (It can be Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.)
• Click the File tab and click Open from the menu. The Open window will appear.

   

  Figure 1: The Open Dialog Box

• In either the File name or Location field, type the URL for the document library app you want to browse. The Site Contents page for your document library will open.
• Click the document library that contains the document you would like to edit. The document library appears in the Open dialog box.

   

  Figure 2: The Shared Documents Library Appears in the Open Dialog Box

• Click the desired document, then click Open. The document will open.

   

  Figure 3: The Opened Document

• Click the File tab, then click Save, once the document editing is complete. The new version of the document will be saved on the document workspace site, and the document will remain open in the Office application. If version control is activated for your workspace, you will be given a choice to save the document as a draft version or a published major version. For more information, see "Activate Version Control."

  Note: If you try save without checking in, you'll get a warning bar to indicate that the document is not checked in.

How to Check Out and In a Document

When a document is being edited from a document library, a user can quickly open the document, make changes, and then save the document back into the workspace. If many users are working on the same document, however, it is better to formally check the document out while making edits, to prevent other users from overwriting your changes. You also may be required to check out documents by a library's properties. After you have completed your edits on a checked out document, you will need to check it back in to the document workspace so others can edit the document.

Checking Out a Document Steps:

• Open an application in Office. (The application can be Word, Excel, or PowerPoint)
• Click the File tab and select Open from the menu. The Open window will appear.
• In the Location field type the URL for the Document Workspace you want to browse and press Enter. The Site Contents page for the document workspace will open.
• Click the desired document, then click Open. The document will open in the appropriate Office application.

Note: You may have to enter your login information when the file opens.

• Click the File tab and select Info from the menu. The Info window will appear.

   

  Figure 4: The Document Info Window

• Click the Manage Versions button, then click the Check Out option. The document will be checked out to you, but will remain stored on the SharePoint system.

Checking In a Document Steps:

• Open an application in Office. It can be Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
• Click the File tab and select Open from the menu. The Open window will appear.
• In the Location field, type the URL for the Document Workspace you want to browse and press Enter. The Site Content page for your shared document site will open.
• Click the desired document, then click Open. The document will open in your Office application.
• When your edits are complete, click the File tab and select Info from the menu. The Info pane will appear.

   

  Figure 5: The Document Info Pane

• Click the Check In icon. The Check In dialog box will appear.

   

  Figure 6: The Check In Dialog Box

• In the Version Comments field, enter any notes.
• Click OK. The document will be checked back in to the document workspace. Although the document has been checked in, the document will remain open, but read-only.

A new version of this post has been for Office 2013. Click here to see it.

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