Using SharePoint for creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as pages and HTML instead of PDF.

Question

_{Tuesday, June 27, 2017 11:39 AM}

Hello, 

We're looking to develop a way of managing SOPs using SharePoint. At the moment some staff are wanting to have SOPs stored in a library as PDFs. We've found one challenge is that many procedures are made up of other procedures and sections of one procedure i.e health and safety instructions may apply to many procedures across the business, but only a small section of a large procedure would need to be linked to. 

It seems to be difficult to link to a specific location in a PDF document. Is this the case? Has any one ever used SharePoint as HTML or a Wiki for SOPs. For example so each small procedure has its own page which much like wikipedia can be displayed as an expandable section of a larger overall procedure?

How do people find have SOPs as PDFs and what are the disadvantages/benefits? Like wise what are people's experiences with HTML pages for SOPs? Can you meta data and tag them in the same way to make them searchable?

Any info or tips appreciated!

Many Thanks

All replies (1)

_{Tuesday, June 27, 2017 11:59 AM}

I would suggest looking into the Enterprise WIKI template in SharePoint.  It provides an editing environment where you can easily link pages, make editing changes, and even implement an approval review for changes.  The major advantage to having the SOPs in PDF form is the ability to download them and take them with you.  But that also leads to the potential for stale policies if you don't implement some kind of syncing arrangement.

Paul Stork SharePoint Server MVP
Principal Architect: Blue Chip Consulting Group
Blog: http://dontpapanic.com/blog
Twitter: Follow @pstork
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