Approving items in a list

This post is just a simple tip that I keep forgetting myself when configuring SharePoint lists...

With SharePoint Server 2007, you can easily set-up workflows to require items in a list to be approved. (Go to the list settings, click on Workflow settings and fill in the boxes.) However, if you are going to the trouble of requiring all items to be approved, you probably only want those items to become visible to everyone once they have been approved. The workflow will not control visibility of the items. To do so, you need to go into the list settings and click on 'Versioning settings'.

Within the list versioning settings, check the button for Content Approval. By default, draft item security will then be set to 'Only users who can approve items (and the author of the item). That's all there is to it (assuming you've set up the workflow correctly).

Note: creating workflows within the browser user interface is only available in the full SharePoint Server product (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Standard or Enterprise edition). If you are using Windows SharePoint Services, you have to create the workflows from scratch.