Forum Discussion
question about publishing files
We are having the same issue. Does anyone know how to turn off this "document publishing" feature?
Rob Barker I am posting the solution we discovered earlier so to help others as well.
The solution is to go to the Library Settings > Versioning Settings and make sure that the "Create major and minor (draft) versions" option is NOT selected.
You can select No versioning or Create major versions, but don't select the last one. If you do, you will be forced to publish documents.
louise1575 - Note tommy's screenshot and compare your library settings. In fact, grab a full screenshot of this settings page (library settings > versioning) and post it. But basically, sounds like that first setting is set to 'yes' which would mean only approver level permissions can publish. There could be additional factors at play such as require checkout and required columns which might complicate when you actually see the publish button.
tommy1973 wrote:PittSharePointPro Thanks Scott.
The screen grab of the settings is below. One other thing is that if you publish using the "Publish" link at the top of the screen you don't get the dialogue box to add comments but you do if you publish via the document properties menu.
The screen grab of the settings is below. One other thing is that if you publish using the "Publish" link at the top of the screen you don't get the dialogue box to add comments but you do if you publish via the document properties menu.Thanks for sharing! I was under the impression that you weren't seeing a publish button even though the system was prompting you to publish. Sorry for the confusion there!
So everything that I'm seeing and hearing is 'normal' here for the settings that you're showing me, including the version comments not displaying on multiple file publishing. This is all designed behavior as far as I can tell.
To recap with your settings (to the best of my knowledge):
- The system will prompt to publish drafts (at least in the information panel, possibly other locations)
- Even though a prompt to publish drafts indicates otherwise, anyone with view permissions can 'see' minor version (based off your screenshot settings - there could be broken inheritance permissions and/or item level permissions in play)
- Anyone with edit permissions can view and publish (or unpublish) to a major version
- There are no technical mechanisms in place to prevent publishing, even if a document isn't 'approved' to be published (this is the 'required content approval' bit set to 'no')
- Publishing more than 1 document will not prompt for version comments
tommy1973 The only problem is that we are using major and minor versions ie whole numbers are approved and fractions are drafts. Is there a way to fix the problem if using major and minor versions?
I may be misunderstanding the issue but major/minor and publishing is not a 'problem' but is a design. Sounds to me like you don't need minor versioning enabled. Is minor versioning an actual business requirement in your environment? If so, I'd have them validate why that is so because it sounds like it's not understood when and why minor versioning should be used.
1. Does anyone know why this is happening and how to stop it?
2. If I can't stop it from happening, can I just tell people to ignore it?
3. When does someone actually need to publish changes? For example, if they edit a document someone shares with them, they don't have to publish the file for those edits to show up, correct?
1. When a file is in a minor version it will say things like "Changes were made to this file. Publish to update changes" this until it is published to a major version
2. See #1 but, yes - If you have the default setting for 'draft item security' set to anyone can view drafts then anyone can view those drafts (drafts=minor versions)
3. Technically, never. Really only business requirements would dictate when a doc should be published. Edits will show up for everyone unless you've specifically restricted this in the 'Draft Item Security Settings'
Thanks Scott. We have a policy that all draft versions of document are Minor versions in SharePoint and once the documents are approved then they are published as a Major version in SharePoint; i.e. a whole number.
Is this not how SharePoint Major and Minor versioning in SharePoint is supposed to be used.
tommy1973 Yes, there might be a way to get around this with the draft settings/content approval stuff. Which would mean something like an approver can only publish. Or perhaps through customized permission levels. Which might risk breaking other things.
- I believe it's related to permissions and who can see minor versions. If everyone can see minor versions then you can safely ignore the warning. If users can only see major versions then you need to publish the doc as a major version before other users can see it.
The setting is located in the "Draft item security" section of "Versioning settings" part of doc library settings.
