Checking Documents In and Out of the SharePoint Library

By default, Word documents are automatically checked out of the SharePoint Library when you open them and begin editing. If you would like to change this default, open the Options dialog (File > Doc-To-Help>Common Tasks>Options), select SharePoint, and clear the Check out Word documents when editing local copy check box.

  1. In Word, open the Documents pane, and select the document you would like to check out.

  2. Right-click and from the menu, choose SharePoint > Check Out. The document icon indicates that the document is checked out . 

    In SharePoint, the document is also flagged with an icon  

    You can open the SharePoint Library by right-clicking on the document and choosing SharePoint > Open in Browser.

  3. After making edits, save your document and close it. Then right-click on it and choose SharePoint > Check In.

Note If a document is checked out in SharePoint by another user, there will be a red checked out icon next to it  

You cannot check out these documents. If you would like to know who has it checked out, right-click on it in the Documents pane and choose Properties. In the Sharing section, see the "Checked out by" field. You can also hover over the document name and the information will display in a tooltip.

You can build targets even if source documents are checked out of the SharePoint Library by you or another user. However, if there are conflicting document versions that need to be merged, when you attempt to build the target, the Synchronize Documents dialog will open and list the conflicting documents. You can then resolve the issue before you build. Doc-To-Help will give you the option to merge the documents. See Merging Word Documents.

If you check out a document and make changes to it, then decide you do not want to retain the changes, right click on it in the Documents pane and choose SharePoint > Discard Check Out.