Understanding the Download a Copy, Send To, Manage Copies, and Go To Source Tools
Next on the Documents Ribbon are the grouping of tools that include Download a Copy, with a large icon, and then to the right, the tools Send To, Manage Copies and Go To Source.
Note
The tools in this section (Download a Copy, Send To, Manage Copies, and Go To Source) should be considered advanced tools, and end users should be educated about the complexities and limitations of these tools. A criticism of these tools is that they go against one of the purposes of SharePoint, which is to centralize and consolidate documents rather than have multiple copies in different places, which these tools make possible. That said, sometimes these tools can be very useful, or even essential, but should still be used with caution.
The Download a Copy is self-explanatory and, if clicked, allows the user to save a copy of the document to another location. Ideally, this option rarely needs to be used, since there are a variety of ways to take content offline, including syncing a folder with Outlook or using SharePoint Workspace or third-party tools, but there are occasions where downloading a copy is useful. The primary situation is when a user has the document checked out and another user really needs to use the document for reference or possibly to edit it as well. Although a primary purpose for the check-out process is exactly so other people don’t edit the document, people sometimes forget they have the document checked out, and the user who needs it is in a rush and doesn’t want to bother an administrator or file a help desk ticket. It is important to note that downloading a copy, editing it, and then saving back to the library once the version stored by the library has been checked in is a bad practice because the changes made in the previous version will be “buried” in the previous versions.
For example, User 1 checks out a Visio, and makes changes, such as adding a server icon, and then forgets to check it in. User 2 downloads a copy because he needs to make an edit and adds a printer icon to the Visio. User 2 now can’t save back to the document library as the same name, so saves to the document library with a slightly different name (rev1). User 1 later checks in his version. Now there are two different primary documents, which is a classic problem from a file share, and this is confusing to users. A better practice is for User 2 to email User 1 and request he check the document back in, and if that fails after a reasonable amount of time, have the administrator force a check in. This way, the versioning system will keep all the versions together, and there won’t be multiple primary documents in the library.
The Send To tool provides two options: Other Location and Create Document Workspace. The Other Location can be defined on-the-fly by the user and must be a SharePoint 2010 document library that the currently logged-in user has contribute privileges in, or it can be defined by the farm administrator in the Central Administration site, via the Configure Send to Connections tool under General Application Settings, or by the document library administrator in document library settings, Advanced Settings page. Figure 19.17 shows the Copy window that opens when a user chooses the Send to Other Location option. The user then types in the name of the destination document library and can edit the name of the document if desired. The user has the option to ask that the author send out updates when the document is checked in and to create an alert on the source document. Although not perfect, these are both good methods of helping to ensure that the person who made the copy is aware if the source document has changed. When the process completes, a copy of the document will be created in the destination library.
Figure 19.17. Copy window resulting from the using the Send To tool in a document library.
An interesting feature of the Send To tool and process is that SharePoint is aware that there is another copy of the document, or even that there are multiple copies of the document. Figure 19.18 shows the Manage Copies window for the document that was just copied using the Send To command. This window allows the user to create a new copy if needed, or to update copies of the document. The user can remove links to documents if desired by clicking the Edit button next to the destination URL. Note, however (and this relates to the note on the topic of document workspaces), that the document library is not aware of the copy of the document placed in the document workspace, which can cause administrative challenges.
Figure 19.18. Manage Copies window for a document.
Document workspaces won’t be discussed in detail here because they are covered in Chapter 21. A document workspace is actually a site that can be created by a user with sufficient privileges that will contain a copy of the document as well as other lists designed for collaboration purposes. Note, however, that unlike when the Send To command is used, a document workspace copy of a document does not maintain a connection to the original, which can lead to confusion on the part of users about which is the latest and greatest version of the document (the one in the document library on the parent site, or the one in the document library in the workspace). The document workspace does provide the tool Publish to Source Location, under the drop-down menu for the document in the Send To section, which the administrator of the document workspace needs to remember to use once the usefulness of the workspace is fulfilled and the document is complete.
Note
Although a good idea, and a tool that has been around for years and several versions of SharePoint, creating document workspaces can be overly complex to administer, so many organizations decide to discourage their use and lock down which users have the permissions to create workspaces. For example, when a new workspace is created, the creator needs to perform the role of a site administrator and give permissions to users, to allow them to access the workspace, and then make sure the right version of the document is being edited, and finally publish the document back to the source document library when the collaboration is complete.
The final tool in this section, Go to Source, will be active if the document selected is connected to a source document. If clicked, it will then show the property information of the source document.