Beginning SharePoint® 2007 Administration: Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 and Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007

10.1. Traditional File Chaos

To understand what SharePoint can do requires that you analyze how things work traditionally. The following table shows the typical tasks a user performs with files and documents every day:

Table 10-1. Typical Tasks

Common File Tasks	Challenges/Problems
Create a file	Where will this file be stored so it can be found later by me and my colleagues? What name should I give this file so it is clear what it contains?
Update a file	How do I find the file to be updated? How can I save the new version without overwriting the old file? How can I update a public file over a period of days and avoid having someone see the document before it is fully updated? How can several people cooperate when updating a file?
Open a file	How do I find the file? How can I be sure it is the latest version? How can I contact the most recent author if necessary?
Delete a file	How can I be sure that there is no other copy of this file still in existence?

These are the challenges that your users deal with every time they work with a file or document. Face the reality: Users solve these challenges in several ways, and the consequence is that you soon have file chaos. No one is sure where all the files are stored, no one is sure that the file they found is the latest version, and all these files make the backup and restore procedures unnecessarily complicated and time-consuming.

10.1.1. Document Management Systems

There are some great tools for creating documents and files, with MS Office ...