As organizations consider using Microsoft SharePoint to manage their documents they ask whether SharePoint can provide the features of 'traditional' document management systems, such as the ability to assign a unique Document ID to each document or file as it is saved.

Unique Document Numbering is not provided by 'out-of-the-box' Microsoft SharePoint 2007, but it is available as a SharePoint add-on called MacroView Unique Document Numbering. MacroView UDN adds best-practice document numbering to SharePoint document management solutions.

Saving or uploading a file to a SharePoint document library that has the MacroView Unique Document Numbering feature enabled causes the next available unique Document Number to be assigned automatically to the file.

This number is recorded in a metadata column called 'Doc ID', which is automatically added to the library once the MacroView Unique Document Numbering feature has been activated.

MacroView UDN also adds and maintains a second metadata column called 'Doc Ref'. Values in this column are a concatenation of Doc ID with other metadata for the document (by default the Title of the document library and current Version number). This document reference information is ideal for display in the footers of documents opened from SharePoint.

The Document ID can be configured to be unique across all the Site Collections in the organization's SharePoint environment and also to have a Prefix (e.g. to identify documents from a particular server farm). Numbering can also be configured to start from a certain point, which is very useful in situations where you are migrating from an existing DM system.

When a Word document is opened into Microsoft Office (Word, Excel or PowerPoint), values of Doc ID and Doc Ref are available as custom Document Properties, which can be displayed in the footer of the document.

MacroView can supply macros that facilitate the display of these properties in the footer of Word documents, and also in Excel and PowerPoint documents. These macros cater for the differences in the handling of document properties between DOC and DOCX files. See more.

Another SharePoint add-on available from MacroView is MacroView DMF, which provides an intuitive tree-view display of the SharePoint environment, and allows you to drag and drop to move files between document libraries. As files are moved, MacroView DMF maintains existing Document IDs.