Share via

Keeping in Control: Document Set Versioning in SharePoint

  • Article

When you’ve worked hard on a project, sending your documents off for approvals is a bit like sending your kid off to college—you sure hope others take good care of it, but ultimately it’s out of your control.

With document sets, you can capture version history for more than just the individual documents in the set—you can also set versioning for the document set as a whole. That way, you can capture a version history of the set at a specific point in the process and restore that set version later if something goes awry in the approval process.  

 

To capture a version:

  1. With a document set open, click the Document Set Manage tab.
  2. In the Manage group, click Capture Version.
  3. Add comments about this version detailing what makes this version different from other versions.
  4. Click OK to capture a snapshot of the current properties and documents in the set.

 

Capturing versions of your project at different stages of the approval process can be a lifesaver. If something does go wrong, you can access the version history to restore it to an earlier version.

 

To manage version history:

 

  1. With a document set open, click the Document Set Manage tab.
  2. In the Manage group, click Version History to open the Version History window.
  3. Choose a version you want to manage and click the list arrow. To restore an earlier version of the document set, select Restore Version, or to delete past versions select Delete All Versions.
  4. Click OK.

 

Keep in control of your project by creating and managing versions of your document set. It can easily help prevent irreversible damage later.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    No, they don't necessarily work in conjunction. However, you may think about using metadata instead of folders. This blog post is a good resource: sharepoint.microsoft.com/.../Post.aspx David

  • Anonymous
    May 28, 2012
    Hi, this is a great feature but the last time I have tried I could't do document sets with documents in different folders? Is that possible? In real projects we have different folders for documents like specifications, reports, ... Thanks

  • Anonymous
    October 30, 2012
    Hi. I am in my first year at maxIT as a consultant. I am learning to navigate through SharePoint, but I want to know if there is a specific set of document formats that maxIT likes us to use on our project to document what work we have done and to get actual sign-off on? Can you direct me? Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2013
    Is there a way to capture version control of a document set automatically when a field value is modified or some document is added within the document set?

  • Anonymous
    June 14, 2013
    Yes is ther any way to do the versinos automatically?

  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2014
    Pingback from Keith Tuomi – SharePoint Server MVP Deleted Documents in SharePoint Document Sets » Keith Tuomi - SharePoint Server MVP

  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2014
    Pingback from Keith Tuomi – SharePoint Server MVP Deleted documents version history behaviour in SharePoint Document Sets » Keith Tuomi - SharePoint Server MVP

  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2014
    Pingback from Keith Tuomi – SharePoint Server MVP Deleted documents version history behaviour in SharePoint Document Sets » Keith Tuomi - SharePoint Server MVP