Over the past few years we have seen the advent of some basic records management features work their way into the SharePoint platform. Well in SharePoint 2010 it just got even better and easier to work with records. So to begin with the records centre has been slightly changed from the SharePoint 2007 version.

We now have a big "Submit Record" button which will allow you to select a file that exists on your machine or a network share and upload it directly to the record centre. You can also now drag*n*drop documents or use the standard upload method.

The most important feature of the site though comes from a single menu item on the "Site Actions" menu.

When you access this you are presented with the following options:

As you are used to and would expect we can create content types for the records, create Record Libraries, define content organizer rules as well as layout the welcome page of the record centre. The content organizer rules are great. To create one we simply access the "Content Organizer Rules" list and add a new item.

Once you have clicked the "Add new item" link the dialog pops up asking for the following details:

Once added it will work just as the record centre rules did in SharePoint 2007 and move the record to route the documents to the correct location. A nice feature of the new platform is the ability to access the compliance details of any document from the ECBMenuItem.

Notice a new feature here is the ability to put items on hold or declare them as records. The declare as record features are available at any level of the site collection structure. To enable this functionality the following features will need to be activated:

Once these are activated you can then access the site collection settings and decide how the record declaration feature should work. "Site Actions", "Site Collection Administration" then choose "Record Declaration Settings".

Once this is set then any library you access will contain the functionality.

The great functionality that goes hand in hand with the records management features is the ability to view your content using the taxonomy. To view this, access a library that you are using and access the library settings.

Then select the "Metadata Navigation Settings" option.

You can then set not only the navigation tree based on the content types but also set fields that can be used as filters for the list and library.

Once set the library will then look as outlined below:

These are great enhancements to the core platform and well worth using in all implementations. This is just a high level view of some of the new features in SharePoint 2010. I will cover them in a little more detail later on.