Microsoft Sharepoint Products and Technologies Resource Kit eBook

Content Approval
Chapter 19: Working with Documents in SharePoint Products and Technologies 547
Warning As a contributor to a document library, you should always check
the status of a document before attempting to edit it. It is advisable that you
check it out first and therefore place a long-term lock on the document prior
to editing the file.
The most visually obvious method of finding out whether a document
is checked in or checked out is by using, within a browser, the All Documents
view of the document library where the document is located. The Checked
Out To column displays the name of the person the document is checked
out to. If the column is blank, the document is not checked out.
If you’re using the Explorer view of a document library within a browser
or you use My Network Places to view a document, there’s no icon associated
with the file to indicate whether the file is checked in or out.
If you have opened a file in a Microsoft Office 2003 application, you
can use the Shared Workspace pane to see which of the Check Out or
Check In options are available.
Content approval allows you to create a list or library in which any items or documents
submitted by users are not immediately visible to all site users—that is, pending
or rejected documents will not be visible in the All Document view of a
document library. You can view a list of the items you submitted and check their
approval status using the My Submissions view. And if you know the URL (or can
guess it), you’ll be able to see documents that were submitted by other users that are
in a pending or rejected state, even if you don’t have Manage List rights. This is
because Content Approval is not a security feature.
Members of the Administrator site group and users with the Manage Lists right
use the Approve/Reject Items view of the list or library to set an item or file as
approved, rejected, or pending. They can also enter comments regarding their decisions.
For example, you can create a document library where all documents must be
approved before all site users can view them.
Submissions by members of the Administrator site group or users with the
Manage Lists right are automatically approved. However, other members of the
Administrator site group or users with the Manage Lists right can still reject the items.