In a multi-user environment, you use the Developer to connect (online) to a centralized content server and share documents using a version control system that allows you to check documents in and out. When you check out a document, it is copied to your local computer for viewing or editing. The document is also locked on the server to prevent any other author from making changes (however, other authors can view it). When you check in a document, it is copied from your local computer to the content server and the lock is then removed, making it available to other authors.
You can check in an interim version of a document and leave it checked out while you continue working by clicking the Keep checked out option on the Check In Comment dialog box during check in. The content is checked in and the version number incremented but the document remains checked out and unavailable for edit by other users. However, other users can view the latest version of the content.
Any document in a Library can be checked in or out depending on its current state. For example, a checked out document can only be checked in and vice versa.
New documents are automatically checked out to you. To make this content available to other authors, you must check it in.
Note: You must be online to check documents in or out.
You can check in or out one document at a time or multiple documents all at once. Just select the documents that you want from either the Library or Outline Editor. Also note that, from the Library, you can select folders on which to perform check in/out. In this case, ALL documents in the selected folders are processed. If any document in a folder has links to other documents in different folders, you have the option to process related documents.
You can also choose to include related documents during check in or out. For example, when you check a module in or out, you can choose to include all its related documents such as its sections, topics, web pages, packages, and so on. This option is available for any document type that can have links to other documents. If you check in/out a Library folder (which checks in/out every document in that folder), you can also check in/out related documents that are stored in any folder outside of the current folder that you have selected.
Important Note on Related Documents: The definition of related documents can vary based on specific operations that you can perform. For example, documents that are considered as related during check in/out operations are different than those considered during import/export. See the Link Related Documents topic in the Work with Document Editors chapter of the Content Development manual for more information.
To ensure that ALL documents are checked in/out, you should consider checking in/out content by a Library folder or use the Document, Check in All command.
Note: You can only check in/out documents from the Library or the Outline Editor.
You can open any document regardless of its check in/out state. However, if you edit a document that is not checked out to you and attempt to save it, you are given the option of saving the changes (for example, check out the document, if available, and save the changes), save the document with a different name, or cancel without saving the changes.
Note: Saving changes to a document that is not checked out to you is not a recommended best practice. This functionality is designed to allow you to save changes to a document that was un-intentionally edited in Read-Only mode.