Specify a Send To destination for a library

You can specify a custom Send To destination for a library, so that people who use that library can easily copy files to a destination that you have specified. To specify a custom Send To destination for a library, you must have the Design permission level for that library.

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How does the Send To command work?

Specify a Send To destination for a file

The Send To command appears on the shortcut menu for each file in the library. Site administrators or list managers can specify a custom Send To destination for a library, so that this destination appears on the shortcut menu for the people who use the library. Additionally, you can use the Send To command to copy a file to a destination that you specify.

How does the Send To command work?

By using the Send To command, you can copy files from the library in which they were created to another library. When a file is copied in this way, the copy maintains a relationship with its source file, and you can choose to update this copy with any changes that are made to the source file. Additionally, if the copy and its source file share common columns or fields, these columns or fields are also updated when the copy is updated.

The Send To command makes it easy for people in an organization to share information with other teams or to publish information to a central location.

For example, a marketing team might save working drafts of its market research publications to a document library on its departmental team site. When these market research documents are completed, the team can use the Send To command to copy these documents to another document library that is accessible to marketers in the field and other teams within a company. When a marketing team member uses the Send To command to copy a document to this destination, he or she can choose to be prompted to update any existing copies whenever the source document is checked in. If appropriate, the marketing team member can then choose to update any existing copies whenever the source file is updated.

By default, you can use the Send To command to copy files to libraries within a site collection. If you copy files from a client computer that has a program that is compatible with SharePoint Foundation, such as Microsoft Office Word 2010, and a browser that supports Microsoft ActiveX Controls, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can use the Send To command to copy files not only between libraries within a site collection, but also between different Web applications. If you copy files from the browser of a client computer that does not support ActiveX Controls, you can only copy files to libraries within site collections that share the same domain name (top-level site name) as the source library.

Also, Web application administrators can set up connections to document and records repositories and choose to display those destinations in the Send To command shortcut menu. To read more about connections to document and records repositories, see Records Management in SharePoint Server 2010.

If you need to copy files to a site that either has forms authentication enabled or is a secure site (for example, a site with a URL that begins with https://), you must add the copy destination to the list of trusted sites in your browser.

Specify a Send To destination for a file

1. Make a note of the URL for the SharePoint library to which you want to be able to copy files.

2. If the library for which you want to specify a Send To destination is not already open, click its name on the Quick Launch.

3. If the name of your library does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your library.

4. On the Library Tools tab on the ribbon, click Library.

5. Click Library Settings on the ribbon.

6. Under General Settings, click Advanced settings.

7. In the Custom Send To Destination section, under Destination Name, type a brief name for the destination to which files will be copied. It is helpful to keep this name brief because the name appears after the Send To command on the shortcut menu for the library.

8. Under URL, type the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the SharePoint library to which you want to be able to copy files. For example, to copy to a specific document library or to a folder within a document library, type either: http://servername/sitename/libraryname or http://servername/sitename/libraryname/foldername.

   Important:  Do not copy and paste the URL for the destination SharePoint library directly from the browser into this text box because this version of the URL will contain extra characters that will prevent you from being able to copy a file successfully to the destination library.