Converting documents into mediums more friendly to other users’ working environment is similar to converting audio files into other portable audio formats. Tools are readily available to support the process. Some of these tools are even embedded in the bare application that creates the document. But for some document conversion processes, a search on the internet using the keyword “document conversion SharePoint” would surely bring up a handful of resources.
Document Conversion in SharePoint
In SharePoint, converting Microsoft Word documents, forms, and XML files can be done with the use of document converters installed on the server. In addition to that, administrators wanting to take advantage of the full potential of Microsoft SharePoint functionalities can explore the embedded features of the product. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is packed with a few converters capable of converting Microsoft Word documents into web pages. This feature makes document conversion in SharePoint more interesting and at the same time easy.
Once a document converter is installed on the server, users can simply visit an internal site associated with the application for the process to commence. Unfortunately, despite some enticing advantages one can get when converting documents into web pages, there are still a few points of concerns that one must be aware of. Among these include the file type supported. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 can only convert Word documents created using the Open XML format (.docx). Users wanting to process documents in an older format must convert the file into a supported standard.
Dynamic content generated from external data sources is still not supported with the converter. Documents that need to load run time entries such as Office InfoPath 2007 will not be able to view the generated dynamic entries. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 currently supports static content. It is strongly recommended that users consider converting static documents only.