Document Sets in SharePoint 2010

SharePoint 2010 has introduced a new feature called Document Sets. It can be understood as a special kind of folder. Essentially Document Sets is a content type. Now since Content Type supports workflows the Document Sets also supports Workflows. So as a real time example if we are working on a set of related documents we can put them in a one Document Set and now we can have a workflow on the document set so that they can be sent in a bunch for approval. See also how to Customize the Document Set and also how to access various details for DocSet using SharePoint Object Model

Document Set also support sharing the meta data between all the documents which are there inside the Doc Set. So as soon we associate any meta tags with the Document Set all the docs will be tagged with the same meta tags if we want. Docuement Sets can be created in the Document library once the feature is enabled. Document Sets have their own welcome page. When we view the document set in a document library, it opens like a folder but displays a welcome page  showing metadata and each child document. This is how the Welcome page looks like for the Document Set and it can be fully customizable so you can create your own Welcome Page.

It also provides the ability to download the whole set as a zip file which is really helpful if we have multiple files inside the Document Set. We can also add another set of content items in the Document Set Content Type. So if we want to include a set of documents which should always be created when we create a new Document Set we just need to add the additional Content Types in this Document Set.

Since Documents Set are a Content Type we need to follow the same steps what we do to enable a content type and associate it with a list/document library in SharePoint 2007. Here are the steps to enable and create Documents Sets in SharePoint 2010:

1. First we need to enable the Document Set Feature. To do this open the SharePoint 2010 Site and navigate to the "Site Collection Features" link.
2. Find the feature with the name "Document Sets". Just activate this feature.

1. Once this feature is activated we need to change the document library to accept content types as by default list/libary do not allow adding content type. To do this here are the steps:
2. Go to Library --> Library Settings --> Advanced Settings and here allow Management of Content Type
3. Once this is done we need to associate the "Document Set" content type to the library. Go to Add from Existing Site Content Type and here we should select Site Content Type from as Document Set.
4. Now if we click on the "New Document" button we will see a new button below document called  "Document Set".