Publishing major versions

SharePoint libraries can be set up to work with major and minor versions of documents, enabling a clear separation between drafts and published versions. Minor versions are also known as draft versions, while major versions are known as published versions. Users who have permission to read content but do not have permission to see draft items will only see the last major version of the document.

If the document is a checked-in minor version (draft), select the Publish a Major Version item (available on the document context menu) to update the document version to the next major (published) version.

Publishing documents that require content approval

Drafts are also defined in SharePoint as a newly created document or as a document that requires content approval.

If major and minor versions are being tracked in a document library that requires content approval, the author must publish the document before it can be submitted for approval. By selecting Publish a Major Version from the document context menu, the document is moved to the pending state. From here, the document can be Approved or Rejected. To learn more about how to approve documents with harmon.ie, read the help topic Approving documents.