Integrating SharePoint 2013 with the Office Applications (part 2) - Microsoft Word - Compare Document Versions, Quick Parts

Compare Document Versions

Microsoft permits users to manipulate versions of a document opened from a SharePoint document library with versioning enabled. The following steps demonstrate how to enable version settings for a document library, and how to compare versions of a document from Microsoft Word:

1. Navigate to the default view of a document library in SharePoint.
2. Click the Library tab on the ribbon and then click the Library Settings icon.
3. Click the Versioning Settings link.
4. Under the section Document Versioning History, enable the desired version scheme.
   
   Create Major Versions: Every document version represents a major version, therefore published for each save or check-in.
   
   Create Major and Minor Versions: Every check-in or save creates a minor version, meaning that the document is in draft mode; users must publish a major version to make the document changes available to other users, which may involve approval workflow.
5. Click the OK button.
6. Navigate back to the default view of the document library.
7. Select the name of a Word document in the document library (click the Upload icon on the ribbon and upload a Word document if none exists).
8. Click the ellipsis and then click the Edit option.
9. Provide credentials for SharePoint, if asked.
10. Wait for Microsoft Word to open.
11. Make some changes to the document.
12. Save the document (which saves it back to SharePoint).
13. Click the Review tab on the ribbon in Microsoft Word.
14. Click the Compare icon in the Compare section of the ribbon.
15. See Figure 4 for the options available.

    

    Figure 4. Options for comparing document versions in Microsoft Word

Most of the options available in Figure 4 are self-explanatory. Users may compare the current open document with a major version, the latest version, or another specific version, and they may combine document versions.

Quick Parts

Microsoft Word documents allow authors to enter Quick Parts, which, when you open a document from SharePoint, allow inclusion of field values from metadata attached to the document library. The following steps demonstrate adding a Quick Part to your open Word document:

1. Navigate to the default view of the document library.
2. Select the name of a Word document in the document library (click the Upload icon on the ribbon and upload a Word document if none exists).
3. Click the ellipsis, and then click the Edit option.
4. Provide credentials for SharePoint, if asked.
5. Wait for Microsoft Word to open.
6. Click the Insert tab on the ribbon in Word.
7. In the Text section of the ribbon, click the Quick Parts icon.
8. Select the Document Property menu item and then select the metadata field from the sub-menu.
9. Figure 5 shows an example where I added the author Quick Part—whenever the author of the document changes in SharePoint, Word will update this value, because the author property is part of the document metadata.