Document management roadmap

Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007

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Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

In this article:

  • Before you begin

  • Create content types

  • Create document libraries

  • Associate content types with document libraries

  • Add content to document libraries

  • Manage content permissions

Document management features in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 enable you to control the document life cycle in your organization — including how documents are created, reviewed, and used; where they are stored; and how they are ultimately disposed of or retained. A well-designed document management system:

  • Organizes content in a logical way.

  • Makes it easy to standardize content creation and presentation across an enterprise.

  • Makes it easy for users to find and share information.

  • Makes it easy to govern content.

This roadmap provides links to Web articles, white papers, training, blog entries, and tools to help guide you in implementing the document management features of your site based on Office SharePoint Server 2007.

The resources presented on this page are organized in the same sequence in which you should implement the document management features of your site:

  1. Create content types.

  2. Create document libraries.

  3. Associate content types with document libraries.

  4. Add content.

In addition to the resources presented on this page, use the following roadmap to learn about other features that contribute to your document management solution:

  • Workflows roadmap

    Workflows implement business processes on documents in Office SharePoint Server 2007. For help designing and implementing workflows, see this roadmap.

  • Sites and subsites roadmap

    Your information architecture is implemented as a set of document libraries across a set of sites and subsites. For help in implementing your site structure, use the resources presented on this page.

  • Records management roadmap

    This roadmap page provides links to Web articles, white papers, training, blog entries, and tools to help guide you in implementing the records management features of Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Before you begin

Before you implement document management features in your SharePoint site, review the following overview topics, which describe Office SharePoint Server 2007 document management capabilities and customization options available to site architects, designers, creators, and developers:

Create content types

Content types enable you to manage the metadata and behaviors of a type of document or list item in a centralized, reusable way. A carefully designed set of content types promotes document consistency across your enterprise and enables you to apply business rules to documents — for example, specifying how a type of document should be approved for publication and how actions on a document should be audited.

To create effective content types:

  1. Define the set of metadata that you want to use across content types. For each unique metadata property, define a column in the Site Column Gallery. Centralizing column definitions promotes metadata consistency across your site.

  2. Determine the hierarchy of content types to implement.

  3. Add columns to each content type.

  4. Add information management policies to each content type. You can either define a global set of policies or add the policies directly to content types.

  5. Associate workflows with the content types.

  6. For document content types, add a default template for documents of each type.

For information about techniques for creating content types, see the following resources:

Define columns

You define columns to use across your site collection in the Site Column Gallery in the top-level site in your site collection. For information about techniques for defining columns, see the following resources:

Add metadata

You can add metadata to a content type by adding columns from the Site Column Gallery or by creating new columns directly in the content type definition. For information about techniques for defining metadata in a content type, see the following resources:

Add information management policies

An information management policy is a set of rules for a type of content. Each rule in a policy is a policy feature. For example, an information management policy feature could specify how long a type of content should be retained, or it could provide document auditing. You can define information management policies in the Site Collection Policies gallery and then apply them to content types, or you can define an information management policy directly within a content type definition.

For information about techniques for defining information management policies, see the following resources:

Associate workflows

By associating a workflow with a content type, you can ensure that the workflow is available to use on any item of that type. For information about techniques for associating a workflow with a content type, see the following resources:

Note

You can also associate a workflow directly with a document library. When you do this, the workflow is available to use on items of any type in the document library.

For help in designing and implementing workflows, see Workflows roadmap.

Create document libraries

Document libraries are locations in a site where users can create, collect, update, and manage documents. You design and implement your document libraries to manage content storage and to promote the information architecture that meets your site's needs. For information about techniques for creating document libraries, see the following resources:

Associate content types with document libraries

You can associate multiple content types with a document library. When you do this, you are specifying that the library can contain items of that content type and that the New command in that library enables users to create new items of that type. For information about techniques for associating a content type with a document library, see the following resources:

Add content to document libraries

For information about techniques for adding content to one or more document libraries, see the following resources:

Manage content permissions

For information about techniques for controlling access to your site's content, see the following resources:

Download this book

This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

See the full list of available books at Downloadable books for Office SharePoint Server 2007.

See Also

Concepts

Plan Information Rights Management

Other Resources

Create or edit a custom document information panel from within Office SharePoint Server 2007
Joel Oleson's SharePoint Blog
SharePoint Products and Technologies Team Blog
SharePoint Products and Technologies Community
Microsoft Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Team Blog