How To SharePoint

May 17, 2010

John Chapman

9 Comments

[SharePoint 2007] “Use my local drafts folder” Default Option

When opening Office documents in a Microsoft SharePoint document library that requires Check Out, users generally receive a pop-up window to confirm that they want to open and check out the document, such as the one below:

The pop-up window has the option to “Use my local drafts folder.” For many users, using this option can cause issues with the check-in and check-out process. Changing the default on this pop-up is NOT done on the server side. It is a behavior specified by the local Office client.

To change the drafts folder default options, open Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 and go to the Word Options (Office Button > Word Options). Under the “Save” section, change the “Save checked-out files to” option to “The web server” (2007) or “The Office Document Cache” (2010). This will change the default of the “Use my local drafts folder” to not checked.

Related content:

1. [Outlook 2010] Meeting Workspace Options
2. Using Content Controls to Repeat Form Fields in Microsoft Word 2007 and Word 2010
3. [SharePoint 2007] Update SharePoint Document Property from Excel VBA
4. [SharePoint 2010] Custom Actions – Intro
5. [SharePoint 2007] Immediate Alerts Console Application

John Chapman

Hello, I'm John Chapman. I am a SharePoint developer living in Mesa, Arizona. I develop solutions using ASP.NET, C#, jQuery, SQL, SharePoint, etc, and I thrive on the challenge of writing code to overcome the impossible, annoying, or otherwise difficult obstacles.

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9 Comments

• Tweets that mention SharePoint – “Use my local drafts folder” Default Option | John Chapman's Blog -- Topsy.com May 17, 2010 at 9:28 am

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  Ray C September 22, 2010 at 12:29 pm

  My question is, if this is NOT checked, where does the darn file go when you check it out? Looked all over for it and can’t find it.

  Reply
  • 
    John Chapman September 22, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    Not 100% sure, but I assume since it isn’t storing it “locally” that it is simply loaded into memory for the application opening the file. If it were stored “locally” it would only be a cached version in the temporary internet files.

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  John January 19, 2011 at 7:20 am

  Any idea how to supress this dialog? It is totally unnecessary once a user sees it a few times. I always want SharePoint to use my local drafts folder and don’t bug me about it each time.

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  • 
    John Chapman January 19, 2011 at 10:25 am

    I don’t know of anyway to do this. Don’t think it’s possible.

    Reply
    • 
      S Miles June 16, 2011 at 1:32 pm

      You can suppress this dialog by opening the browser Tools > Internet Options> Security Tab > Trusted Sites and adding the site url to the trusted sites. This will suppress any futher notifications.

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      • 
        Shrepoint 2010 November 30, 2011 at 3:38 am

        Client side settings is not a suggestible solution, need to avoide that popup from some settings in the document library.

        Reply
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          John Chapman November 30, 2011 at 3:42 am

          Unfortunately, that’s not possible. This behavior is 100% client-side and is controlled by the local installation of Microsoft Office.
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  Mukunda December 2, 2011 at 5:07 am

  Helped me a lot.. Thanks for sharing

  Reply