HOW DO I…

MOVE A DOCUMENT WHILE RETAINING ITS VERSION HISTORY?

If you are an Administrator of an Intranet, Team or Project site, you may at some point, wish to archive certain documents (eg at the end of each year). This is definitely recommended, however you will need to retain the version history of each document that you would like to archive in order to retain it's audit trail. This may be required during AQTF or ISO audits.

So how is it done? Follow these steps:

  1. Create a new document library and make sure that Version Control is turned "On". Give it a logical name eg "Archives 2008 - Reports".
  2. The new document library will open by default. On the menu bar for the document library choose "Actions - Open with Windows Explorer". This will open the document library in a normal windows environment. Leave the window open.
  3. Open the document library that contains the documents to be archived. On the menu bar for the document library choose "Actions - Open with Windows Explorer".
  4. Position the two open document library windows on your screen so that they are both fully visible.
  5. Click or Shift/Click each document to be archived. Drag the selected document from the old document library window to the new document library window and drop them in the window area. You will be asked if you want to move or copy the files. Click the "Yes" button to move the files.
  6. Continue moving files from one location to the other until all files have been archived in the new document library then close each open window.
  7. Check each document library within SharePoint to make sure all files have been moved across successfully. In particular, check that the Version History has been retained.

Please note: to retain the version history you must "Move" the document, not "Copy" the document. Copying a document from one location to another will retain the version history in the first location, but will be lost in the copied location.

For more details contact the Knowledge & Information Systems Coordinator or the Quality & Information Systems Administrator.

Filename: Changing your Screen ResolutionDate Published: 18/07/2008

Document Owner: Knowledge & Information SystemsPage 1 of 2

Printed copies of the document are not controlled. Please refer to the current version