Multiple workers, everyone is busy taking out files individually and in bunches and suddenly you are up to your ears in checked out documents. What are you going to do? Your work space is suddenly filled with all these files that have been checked out, but now they are sitting around and you need to put them back where they came from. With the bare bones, no frills and no add-ons SharePoint you are stuck with the daunting task of uploading and checking in each file one at a time. Just the thought of this gives you nightmares and you dread the time it will take to check in everything, the countless hours you will have to spend doing this repetitive and tedious work and all the time you will lose when you could spend it on other tasks. This nightmare of a job is no longer a nightmare with a great product from BoostSolutions called Batch Check In. Batch Check In was first released back in February 2009 and it hosted a great number of significant features that helped to stream line functionality and usability of SharePoint making tedious, repetitive, and even frightening tasks less cumbersome and especially less time consuming. Now with more than 2 years under its belt since it was first released this fantastic product has gone through a number of updates and is now available with several new and outstanding features to what is already an excellent product. What can it do for you? Here is a list of features available in Batch Check In release 2.5.330:
- Multi-lingual with 4 supported languages (English, Japanese, German and Simplified Chinese)
- The ability to upload and check in multiple documents
- Easily checks in documents that are in folders and subfolders
- Keeps track of files as they are checked in by automatically updating column values for all the documents
- Easily discard check out of several files without manually editing each item
- The capability to change content type of documents when checking in
- Check in a local draft that has been checked out to a local draft folder
- The means to edit Managed Metadata columns
- The ability to edit External Data Columns
- It can auto enter the default value in columns
- Has a function to replace the original non-blank value in columns
- Compatible with SharePoint Cascaded Lookup, Cross-Site Lookup Column and SharePoint Column View Permission
- Supports SharePoint custom document library
Now here is the real hidden beauty and power behind Batch Check In, the ability to multi-task. Instead of waiting around for one task to finish before beginning another you can put Batch Check In to work and let it get busy with uploading a large collection of documents, in the meantime you can occupy your time with editing column values thus saving valuable time and increasing productivity. The addition of this incredible add-on to SharePoint adds only two options to the menu bar that enhances and boosts document and document library management in SharePoint. Let’s take a quick look at how the functions work. Once Batch Check In is added, getting up and running is easy and straightforward. Go to the ribbon and click on the Check in multiple documents button and you are ready to go. Not sure how to use a function or still unclear on how to do something. Not a problem, with a demo and tutorial section on the BoostSolutions website (http://www.BoostSolutions.com/batch-check-in.html) you can be up and running in minutes and quickly take advantage of these extraordinary features. Not sure if Batch Check In is for you. Not to worry with a free 30-day trial you can quickly install it and take it for a spin leaving you plenty of time to ask the question, why didn’t I use Batch Check In before?