If you are using Microsoft Office 2000, a WebDAV-enabled desktop application, you can start the application, open a file in the portal, edit the content, and save it back to the portal. You do not need to download the document from the portal and then upload it again after you have edited it.
Before using an Office application to work with portal content, you must first set up Web Folders to access the portal through Windows Explorer. See Section 18.2, "Setting Up Oracle Portal for WebDAV" and Section 18.6, "Using Web Folders as a WebDAV Client".
If you are using an Office application to browse portal content, you should be aware that when you open a file, that file is locked in the WebDAV client and checked out in the portal. Therefore, other users will not be able to edit the file until the you have closed it. When you close the file, it is unlocked and checked back in. If versioning is enabled, a new version is created. If the Office application cannot lock the file (for example, if it is locked by another WebDAV client, or the item was checked out in the portal) then it is opened as read-only.
You can also use Microsoft Office 2000 to create new items in the portal. Simply create the file and then save it directly to one of your portal's Web Folders. The item type in the portal is determined by the default WebDAV item type specified in the portal for regular files. Once you save the new file, it is added to the default item region on the portal page.
In Microsoft Word, when a file is opened it is automatically locked. The approval process is not triggered until the file is unlocked, when the file is closed. Therefore, simply saving the file does not trigger the approval process. Users must perform the action that causes the client to unlock the file (that is, close the file) to trigger the approval process.