There are many situations in which a set of content, such as Word and Excel documents, PowerPoint presentations, and images are all interrelated. In previous iterations of SharePoint, as well as other ECM systems, these items would be treated as separate identities. Managing these items would be on an individual basis, even if they were organized in a folder. In this scenario, if you wanted to enact a workflow across the documents it would require each item having the workflow placed on it, rather than the sum of content being treated as one set and managed appropriately.

Managing separate pieces of related content can be a time consumptive process which leads to inefficiencies and a higher risk of losing a piece(s) of content that should belong to a larger collection of content. SharePoint 2010 addresses the need to manage related content via Document Sets. Document Sets are exactly what they sound like, a collection of related documents that can managed as a whole, rather than individually.

Some of the core capabilities of Document Sets are as follows:

• Document Sets can share the same metadata for all content within the set which makes the storing and finding of related content collections much easier.
• Workflows can be enacted for the Document Set instead of trying to manage each piece of content via a separate workflow.
• Versioning can be leveraged at the Document Set level with the capability to roll back to previous iterations. Content within a Document Set can still be versioned individually, but the ability to capture the entire set of content at a point in time has huge value, particularly for content that is dependent on the version of another piece of content.
• Permissions are set at the Document Set level instead of trying to keep the individual content security levels in sync.
• All of the content within a Document Set can be downloaded as a ZIP file.
• A custom Welcome Page can be created for a Document Set content type.

Sample Document Set:

Given the capabilities of SharePoint Document Sets, it is clear to see how this adds a lot of value to document management. As more users collaborate, they require a centralized method for editing, reviewing, and maintaining related content. A great example is ensuring that the most up to date version of an estimate and sales proposal get out the door (after an approval workflow was enacted for quality control) without ever wondering if the correct versions were proofed and sent. Efficiency… Quality Control… Peace of Mind…. Who wouldn’t want that?

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