I was recently tasked with taking over the SharePoint administration for my company, but I have very limited SharePoint experience. I'm using SharePoint 2010.
I have a List with a few built-in columns (like Status, Assigned To, etc) and I'd like to perform a few actions when a new List item is created: change the Status and Assigned To columns of the List item, send out an email, and then create a task for the user's manager to approve it. However, in SharePoint Designer, I cannot figure out how to create a Reusable Approval Workflow and associate it to a List, or a List Workflow and add an Approval Task to it.
If I create a Reusable Approval Workflow, when I try to use the "Set Field in Current Item" Action, I don't have any of the List Columns available (to set the Status, Assigned To, etc).
And when I create a List Workflow, I can access the columns for the list (Status, Assigned To, etc) but I can't figure out how to make the new List item go through the Approval process.
So my question is: how do I Associate a Workflow to a List, change some of the List column properties, and create an Approval Task for the Manager when a new item is created?
Am I missing something here or am I not approaching this correctly?
Best Answer
The easy way is just opening your site with designer and configure the approval workflow from there. You can select the list and make all the changes. I would give you a step by step guide, but some did this awesome article, so check it out http://plexhosted.com/billing/knowledgebase/226/How-to-create-a-simple-approval-workflow-in-SharePoint-Designer.html