Workflow
Key point: To keep track of the lifecycle of a document.

A workflow expresses the stages in a document’s lifecycle – reducing coordination overheads in a collaborative writing environment. In the user interface, workflows use the icon.

There can only be one workflow per document – the status of the document is the workflow status.

Unlike tasks, workflows are bound to the whole of the document they are created on and cannot be moved or removed.

Like tasks, workflows let you use the following properties on a document:

  • Status – nominates the state of the document.
  • Priority – nominates the importance of the work.
  • Assignee – nominates the member responsible for the document – by default, only the assignee is notified.
  • Due Date – nominates when completion of the work is required.

The document status values available to use depend on the role that a member has in the group.

In the group properties form, managers can set the values for workflow properties and which roles can use them.

You can advance the document workflow to a next stage by using the workflow dialog. 

Workflows can also use labels. Workflows can be created on multiple documents at the same time (using the batch action dialog), but they are independent from each other.

The comment content of workflows can be edited retrospectively – no notification is generated for the edit.

When you archive a document, the workflow is also automatically archived. If the document is unarchived, the workflow is also unarchived.

See workflows and tasks to learn about the differences between them.