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I have set up my document library for multi-editing (i.e, checkout not required for multiple users to edit simultaneously). But now, when users edit and save the document there is no "check in" dialog, which means there is no way to add a comment to describe their changes. Is there any "workaround" for this problem -- any way to manually edit the metadata of the document to add user comments associated with a given version? NOTE: I am not looking for any programmatic changes, as I don't have the required privileges for that sort of thing. I am just interested in a manual process that I could use to workaround this issue.

UPDATE: OK, well, after giving it some more thought, I think I have answered my own question. So this is my current (imperfect) workaround:

  1. Check out the document manually. Note that this is only possible if noone else has it open for editing -- and that includes me; so I have to save my current open version and close it.
  2. Immediately check it in again. This opens the check-in dialog and allows me to add a comment. Make sure to select the "Overwrite the current minor version" option, to associate the comment with your most recently saved version of the document. I believe this is essentially the same idea as the one suggested on this forum, as it requires a separate checkout/checkin step.

If anyone else has a better suggestion (e.g., one that doesn't require me to close the document and shut down Word just to add a comment every time I save a revision), I'd be happy to hear it.

CLARIFICATION: The comments field that I want to populate is the one that shows up in the Version History dialog, as in this screenshot: Version History screenshot

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4 Answers 4

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One thing you can do is add a comments field to the list. Then from within Word, they can edit this field directly. Click File menu, then you'll see Properties on the right. Since your doc is versioned, their comments will be as well.

HTH

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  • I actually started down that road, but it wasn't obvious to me whether (or how) those comments would show up in the version history.
    – kmote
    Oct 15, 2012 at 23:20
  • try it out, i did just before I left the answer. Word lets you edit most properties and fields in the meta data of the document
    – David Lozzi
    Oct 16, 2012 at 0:05
  • Hmm. I don't think this is what I'm after. I created a new doc, edited & saved several versions of it, and with each version I changed the comment text in the Comments field as you described. But that field doesn't correspond to the Comments field that shows up in my Version History dialog (see screenshot in OP).
    – kmote
    Oct 16, 2012 at 14:59
  • I experienced the same thing, there are TWO comments fields, one is in Word, the other is your field. Maybe call your comments field CompanyName Comments, like Acme Comments?
    – David Lozzi
    Oct 16, 2012 at 15:09
  • Yes that would help differentiate the two, but the problem remains that the field that I can edit in the File menu Properties window in Word is not going to be visible in the Version History dialog in Sharepoint.
    – kmote
    Oct 16, 2012 at 18:29
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It seems like your version is the only possible. Look it up here: Co-authoring and the checking out of documents

It seems like there are two different approaches how you could work with your documents: 1) checking out and being able to check in docs with comments. In this case only you can edit a document. 2) "Working online" when multiple user are able to edit documents but not leave any comments because saving a document they do not commit it to sps (even though it is happening since documents somehow gets to the servers, right?)

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Choose "Upload" from SharePoint screen. A dialog will present that allows for adding comments. Simply add your comment, choose the file, click OK and you are done. I was dragging and dropping and was wondering how to do this as well.

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Use checkout and then check-in, this way there will be a comment box

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