Document management roadmap
Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007
This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.
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:
Create content types.
Create document libraries.
Associate content types with document libraries.
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 implement business processes on documents in Office SharePoint Server 2007. For help designing and implementing workflows, see this 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.
-
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:
Microsoft Records Management blog: Information Management Policy Features
White paper: Information architecture in Office SharePoint Server
Document Converters Overview (developer)
Document Information Panel Overview (developer)
Introduction to Information Management Policy (developer)
Information Rights Management in Windows SharePoint Services Overview (developer)
Introduction to Content Types (developer)
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:
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.
Determine the hierarchy of content types to implement.
Add columns to each content type.
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.
Associate workflows with the content types.
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:
White paper: Managing enterprise metadata with content types
Site and List Content Types (developer)
Content Type Scope (developer)
Content Type Derivation (developer)
Content Type Change Control (developer)
Content Type Access Control (developer)
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:
How to: Add a Column to a Site (developer)
Updating Site Columns (developer)
Updating Content Types (developer)
Updating Child Content Types (developer)
Deleting Content Types (developer)
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:
Adding Columns in Content Types to Lists (developer)
How to: Reference a Column in a Content Type (developer)
Custom Information in Content Types (developer)
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:
Create an information management policy for a site collection
Share information management policies between site collections
Specify information management policies for a list, library, or list content type
Code Sample: Item-Level Auditing (developers)
Information Policies in Content Types (developers)
Scoping and Updating Information Policies (developers)
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:
Manage permissions for a list, library, folder, document, or list item
Information Rights Management in Windows SharePoint Services Overview
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