Approval workflow with email notifications

Question

I am new to the Sharepoint workflow process and I am trying to do the following:

1. When the user creates a new item in a list, I'd like them to be prompted to select an approver from a company Outlook address book.
2. I'd then like the approver to receive an email that they have an item awaiting their approval then be able to approve or reject the item with comments.
3. For a rejection, I'd like the original user to be emailed of the rejection and comments.
4. For an approval, I'd like the original user to be notified of the approval and then a second notification to go to a group distribution listed on our company address book.

Thank you!

Answer 1

1. You need to create or modify a column in the list to be required. This list column can be named something like "Approver" and users that create the item list will be required to enter in this information.
2. This will be where the workflow will come in. You can create a SharePoint Designer workflow that will "Start an Approval Process" with the "Approver" as the first recipient.

3 & 4. This is handled in SharePoint Designer by the Approval Process action.

Here are a couple links to get you started with SharePoint Designer:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-designer-help/create-a-workflow-HA010100591.aspx http://svengillis.blogspot.com/2011/01/sharepoint-designer-2010-action-start.html