Basic question on SharePoint usage: to guarantee access to the (most recent) published version

[Avraham Makeler <amakeler -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Hi all,



I have a basic question on SharePoint usage as a DMS for R&D documentation.



Excuse me for asking a question that has probably been asked many times
before, but <excuses>.



I have been doing tech writing at my employee company for a quite a while,
but always in constant crisis mode, and so have had no time to try to
improve the methodology of the way we use SharePoint or the type of
services that the IT dept. provides. Things have now calmed down for a bit,
so I want to take the opportunity to improve the methodology.



Our SharePoint service provides the following basic user functions:  Check
Out, Check In, Check In Comment, Major Version, and Minor Version.



The major concern I see is as follows:



We have no way to guarantee direct access by default to the (most recent)
published version, since there is no separation into (i) an easy to access
âreleasesâ area and (ii) a âwork in progressâ area.



Thus, when any user accesses a document by an SP link (saved or by a
search), the default retrieved document will always be the most recent
update, i.e., the top of the documentâs SP stack. This could equally be a
recently published version or the most recent âwork in progressâ version,
where the latter includes the usual developerâs mess of inline questions,
highlights, and comments, not to mention ânot yet reviewed contentâ, and
more.



There are additional challenges, but the above is the main one, IMO, and
the one I want to deal with first.



I suggested to the SP administrator to implement one of the following
solutions:



1. For each document access request, the SP system should display a dialog
box asking the user whether: (i) Most recent published version is needed  â
*or* â  (ii) Most recent version is needed, and implement a filter behind
the scenes.

    - or â

2. Maintain two SP stacks for each document: one stack is the âPublishedâ
stack and the other is the âWork in Progress stackâ.

The SP administrator refused both suggestions and said: âMy solution for
you is to use the already built in functions of SP and not make things more
complicatedâ.



Are there built in SP functions to guarantee that an SP link I sent out as
a published version always remains pointing to a published version, and not
to a âwork in progressâ version? If not, where do I go from here?



Thanks in advance.



Avraham





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