Create Document Workspace from Microsoft Word

Word 2007 gives the option to publish a word document onto a SharePoint Document Workspace, edit local or server copy,  and keep it synchronized. This article explains the following

1. Creating a Document Workspace from Microsoft Word
2. Steps to edit from Word (local copy)
3. Editing from SharePoint (server copy)
4. Opening local copy and getting updates

The steps are documented using Word 2007 and SharePoint 2010.  SharePoint 2007 steps are similar

Microsoft Word

• Select Office Button > Publish > Create Document Workspace. The Document Workspace pane is docked to the right of the word document. You can resize the pane or move it to a different location

• Enter name of the Document Workspace and the URL for the Location
• Click Create. The Document Workspace gets created at the specified location and the Document Management pane is displayed in the Word document as shown in the screen print below

What gets created in Sharepoint

When you create a Document Workspace from a Word document, in SharePoint a Document Workspace is created with Members and Links Web Parts with the Quick Launch displaying links for Libraries, Lists, and Discussions. When you create a Document Workspace directly from SharePoint, the same features /options are available as well.

Editing in Microsoft Word

• Open Microsoft Word
• Select Office Button > Open
• Enter the URL of the Document Workspace in the Filename field and click Open

• Select the document and click Open
• Check out the document. Refer to this article on how to and the ways to check out the word document that resides in SharePoint

Note that the Document Pane displays to whom the document is checked out to.

• Make changes as required to the word document. On completion save and check in the document so the change is visible to all users
• To check in the document, select Check in from the document pane, or Office Button > Server > Check In or by clicking the Check In icon in the Quick Access Toolbar
• Enter Comments in the Check In box that appears and click OK

Editing in SharePoint

• Open Sharepoint and open the word document from the workspace
• Check Out the document and make changes as required. On completion, save and Check In the document

Open Local copy

When the local copy of the word document is opened for editing, you are prompted to get updates

• Open local copy of the Word. You are prompted of the updates

• Click Get Updates

You can also set options to get automatically when the document is opened. Click Options link when prompted for updates (refer to the screen print above for Options link) to set the required options.

• When you Save the local copy of the document, you will be prompted whether to update the Workspace Copy or not.

You can also set options to update the workspace automatically when the document is saved. Click Options link when prompted for updates (refer to the screen print above for Options link) to set the required options. The Options link is also available from the Document Management pane (refer to figure 2 above)

Related posts:

1. Microsoft SharedView
2. Create a Data View using SP Designer
3. Track Changes in Word 2007
4. Mail Merge Word 2007