Draft documents in Globodox are temporary, intermediate documents which may be created while a team of users are working on the next major version of a document. Draft documents can have different access permissions as compared to published documents. Thus draft documents enable a team of users to securely collaborate on the next version of a document and also enable the modified document to be reviewed by another team of users (e.g. via a workflow) before it is made available to a larger set of users (e.g. an entire department or company).

To understand draft documents better, let us look at how modification and review of a documents works in Globodox, when not using the draft documents feature…

• Jane wants to revise a policy document to incorporate some changes
• Jane and a few others in her department have the permission to edit this document while everyone else in the department can view the document
• Jane checks out the document
• All users who have the permission to edit or view the document can still view the document (as it was at the time when Jane checked it out)
• Jane makes changes to the document and then checks-in the document
• The new changed document is now visible to everyone in the department

While the above method works well, it has its limitations. It does not provide a good mechanism for collaboration during document revision or approval. Suppose Jane has to work with a team of users for modifying the document and/or if she must get approval from a team of users, before the document can be made available to the rest of the department. In such a case, Jane might have to manage such collaboration outside of Globodox. Draft Documents provide a simple method to enable such collaboration within Globodox.

A draft document is a document which is currently being modified or reviewed. Globodox provides a separate security mechanism for draft documents. So you can have one set of users allowed to view or edit the draft version of a document and another (usually larger) set of users who are only allowed to view the published version of the document.

Now let us see, how the draft documents features enables collaboration during the document revision and approval process.

• Jane wants to revise a policy document to incorporate some changes
• Jane and a few others in her department have the permission to edit this document while everyone else in the department can view the document
• Jane checks out the document
• All users who have the permission to edit or view the document can still view the document (as it was at the time when Jane checked it out)
• Jane makes changes to the document and then checks-in the document as a draft document
• The status of the documents automatically changes from Checked Out to Under Review. Other users know that this means a new modified version of the document is currently under review.
• Only those use who have been given permissions to edit or view the draft can now see the changes and make comments (they can even checkout the draft and check it back in with their own changes).
• Once the team is fine with changes, another team could review the document and then approve it (for e.g. the draft document could be sent in a workflow for approval)
• The approved draft document can then be checked-in as a published document (this is now known as publishing a document).
• The new changed document is now visible to everyone in the department

As you can see the draft documents feature provides a powerful and elegant way to handle collaborative document revision and approval.