About Microsoft Office Group Approval

The feature described in this Help topic is available only if any of the following versions of both Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 are installed: Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, or Korean.

The Microsoft Office Group Approval is a feature built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server that enables electronic approval processes within organizations. This workflow allows you to perform all traditional paper-based approval activities -- from creating documents to routing them through a defined approval route, signing them by rejecting, holding or approving using stamps or signatures, leaving a comment if necessary, and managing approval documents using document numbers — efficiently in virtual space.

After you access the My Approval home page by logging in using Microsoft Windows credentials or form authentication, you can have an instant view of the status of documents that you requested approval for or need to approve yourself, and easily browse all the approval documents to date within the organization. The screen displays the account information of the currently logged-in user on the top, and the document library structure on the left. The document library consists of the Personal folder and the Archival folder. The Personal folder has different folders to store documents — the Proposed by Me, For Approval, Rejected for Me, and Approved by Me folders — depending on where the documents are in the approval process. As the right screen shows contents by folder in detail, you can check the status and information of files that you submitted or signed but that still remain in the approval process. Documents that have finished the approval process will be automatically moved and saved to the Archival folder. The Archival folder is consistent with the organization structure defined by your administrator. Documents that have finished the approval process are saved in the folder for the department that the submitter belongs to. In other words, documents can be automatically managed by department.