Edit document attached to list item

Question

We have SharePoint 2010. The requirement is user should be able to edit and save document without having to save it on hard disk (typical Doc lib with check-in/check out and versioning) ... the next req is user should be able to attach/upload multiple documents which he/she can edit.

Now the question is is there any way to edit the attached document when its attached to list item and store the versions of it? Is it possible to upload multiple documents to single doc lib list item which then can be edited? Is there any alternative approch to go about ?

Any leads, links or lookups are helpful.

Thanks,

-ItsPrash

Answer 1

"without having to save it on hard disk"

-- This is only possible by using Office Web Apps so you can edit documents directly on the server.

"user should be able to attach/upload multiple documents which he/she can edit"

-- You can attach multiple documents to list items. In document libraries you only have single files and you could group them by using folders or document sets (I'll get to that later.

"edit the attached document when its attached to list item and store the versions of it"

-- No. List item attachments are like E-Mail attachments, you cannot edit them or have versions. Just download them, delete them or attach others.

You should be looking at Document Sets which are a new feature of SharePoint 2010. Basically they are folders with metadata attached. So you could basically emulate your list item (with all its metadata) and put documents within that document set. You only have to activate the document set feature and you will have this new content type to be added to your document library. With document sets you can upload multiple documents which belong together and even share their metadata. With that approach you can do everything which is possible in a document library (checkin/checkout, versions, office web apps).

Answer 2

With Sparqube Document Column you can do all the things that were mentioned above. This custom filed type can be added to any type of list and allows linking documents stored in any Document Library. You will be able upload multiple documents and manage their directly from list item.

http://www.sparqube.com/SharePoint-Document-Column/

NOTE: It is commercial add-on.

Answer 3

In previous versions of SharePoint you could attach a word document to a list item and continue to update it. For example a Project Log. You could update it with new text and just save the word doc. This would save it in the list item.