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In the next few posts called "SharePoint 2010 User Experience" I will take you through a journey of the new user features that make SharePoint the great platform it is today and will be going forward. In this post we will look at the new concept of document sets. So firstly let's look at how this works. Open up your SharePoint 2010 Site and navigate to the "site collection features" link.

Look down the list of features and find the one called "Document Sets". Simply activate this.

Once activated we need to change the document library to accept content types. Follow the steps below:

Once done we need to associate the "Document Set" content type to the library.

So now we have this added, simply click the "Documents" link on the ribbon bar.

This should take us back to the default library view. If we then press the "New Document" button we are presented with our "Document Set" content type.

Selecting this enables us to create a document set, first it asks for a name and then a description.

Then we are presented with what is called a welcome page for the document set. From here we can "View" or "Edit" the document set properties, or use the ribbon bar and upload files directly into the set.

From the ribbon bar select the "Upload Document", then "Upload Multiple Documents" option.

We are then able to use the new uploading method.

Notice how we can drag and drop files directly on the screen, or we can use the "Select files from a folder" option.

Once the files have been selected, they will then upload and you should be presented with a screen similar to this:

Once you click to confirm the upload they should then upload and the screen should return to the welcome page with the documents listed below:

If we come out of the document set now and back into the default library view we can see that the document set is classed as single object that has its own menu items just as with a normal document.

Yes, there are few more menu items than SharePoint 2007!! For example if we select the "Download a Copy" it zips the file(s) up and presents it as a single zipped download.

If we try to use any of the menu items it treats the document set as a single object. You are still able to use all the standard options within the document set as you would with any normal document.

So as you can see there are some great features that are coming in SharePoint 2010, not only document sets but also the ability to zip files as part of a download. These are just a couple of the new features that will be available. Hopefully as I go through them you will see what great things are in store and why should upgrade!!