The Basics of Saving a Word Document to a SharePoint Document Library

Users and administrators alike will want to become very familiar with the process of using Word in conjunction with SharePoint 2010 document libraries. Previous chapters have dealt in detail with the tools available in document libraries that provide users with a wide range of ways to interact with and manage their documents, specifically Chapter 19, “Using Libraries and Lists in SharePoint 2010.” Although it might be somewhat repetitive, this section covers the basic steps a user needs to follow to create a new document in a document library and then populate the metadata fields and save the document.

In this example, the user has created a new document from a SharePoint 2010 document library and then accessed the File tab on the Ribbon to access Backstage. This document library has had several columns added to it that will be reviewed in the following steps.

Follow these steps to explore the capabilities of Backstage in more detail:

1. Click the new document from a document library that has had one or more choice columns added, and one or more managed metadata columns added. The assumption is that the document library uses a Word template.
2. When the new document opens, click Enable Editing if needed.
3. Enter some text in the document.
4. Click the File tab to access Backstage, which will default to the Info tab, and click the Show All Properties link in the lower-right corner. The results will look similar to Figure 25.1. The user has the option to enter metadata from the File tab or from the standard editing view of the document.

   Figure 25.1. File tab showing the Backstage tools in Word 2010.

   

5. In this case, the user prefers to enter metadata from the regular editing view, so she accesses the drop-down menu titled Properties from the File tab and clicks Show Document Panel, and the Home tab opens, as shown in Figure 25.2.

   Figure 25.2. Populating the metadata fields in the Document Properties fields.

   

6. The user now enters data into the various metadata fields. In this example, those are Title (a default metadata field), Type of Document (a choice column added to the document library), Document Owner (a person or group column added to the library), Document Status (a choice column added to the document library), and Project (a managed metadata column added to the document library).
7. In this example, when the user clicks the Type of Document drop-down menu, a message appears that informs the user “AutoComplete remembers entries in Document Information Panel and Web Forms.... Do you want to turn Autocomplete on?” She clicks Yes. This will make previously entered text available as suggestions for this and future documents.
8. She makes choices from the Type of Document drop-down, enters her own account as Document Owner, sets the Document Status at Draft, and then in the Project field, she starts typing the word Project and she is given options for the managed metadata values available to choose from, as also shown in Figure 25.2. She chooses Project MNO.

   Tip

   Depending upon the configuration of the managed metadata group, as well as the configuration of the managed metadata column, a user might be able to add values to the group from within the Office 2010 application. To try this from Word 2010, access the File tab, and click the icon next to the Managed Metadata field in the Properties section on the right side of the page (the property is Project in this example). The Select window opens, as shown in Figure 25.3. Then click Add New Item and enter the new term. For this to be functional, the term set Submission Policy must be set as Open in the Managed Metadata service application, and the column in the document library must have the Allow Fill-in setting set to Yes.

   Figure 25.3. Adding a managed metadata entry from the File tab.

   

9. She then wants to save her work, so clicks the Save button.
10. The Save As window opens to the SharePoint document library where the document was created, and she enters a title and clicks Save.