Document Sets

Documents sets are new in SharePoint Server 2010. Technically, these sets are another content type, with particular functionality. A document set is related to a document library and is similar to a folder. Like a folder, you can add multiple documents to one document set. While a folder can be opened, a document set is much more. Each document set can have a different set of content types. Creating a new document set means creating a set of different documents. Imagine you want to produce offers for customers. The offer can contain various Office documents, such as the quote, terms and conditions, a calculation sheet, a presentation with some company information, and more. All these can be assembled by a user with a single click.

Document sets have several advantages:
Each set has its own version history. It’s not necessary to track changes at the document level.

You can assign access rights on a per-set level.

You can assign and start workflows related to a set.

Users can download the whole document set as a ZIP file.

The home page related to a document set is a wiki page that can be edited easily.

Documents that are part of a document set can share their metadata.

Before you can access and use document sets programmatically, some preparatory steps are required. The document sets feature is available at the site collection level. To activate it, open the site settings and click “Site collection features.” On the next page, click the Activate button near the Document Sets feature entry.



A document set can now be created by adding a new content type, which inherits from the built-in content type Document Set.