Authors Are Prompted Twice for Credentials When Authors Open a Document in a Web Folder (295382)

SYMPTOMS

If you are an Author or Coordinator in Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and you use Microsoft Office to open files that are saved in a workspace in an enhanced folder, you may be prompted twice to type your credentials. Depending on your version of Office, the following behavior may also occur:

If you use Microsoft Office 2000, after you type your credentials, you receive a read-only copy of the file.
If you use Microsoft Office XP, after you type your credentials, you are prompted to check the document out.

CAUSE

This behavior is by design. When you double-click a document in a Web folder to open the document, you start a new program (for example, Microsoft Word 2000). Even though you are authenticated for the Web folder, the program that you are starting needs to be authenticated with the server; therefore, you are prompted for credentials a second time.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior if you use an Office 2000 program (such as Word 2000), install the Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server Client, and then use the SharePoint Portal Server Client to check out files. To save changes that you made to a read-only copy when you are using an Office 2000 program, you must save the changes to your desktop, and then copy the changes back to the server through the Web folder.

MORE INFORMATION

The functionality to edit and check out documents in a SharePoint Portal Server workspace does not exist in Office 2000; therefore, you receive only a read-only copy of the document. To use the full functionality of SharePoint Portal Server Web folders, you must use a client that is SharePoint Portal Server-aware, such as Office XP or Microsoft Office 2003.