The Three-State Workflow - The Forgotten Out-Of-The-Box Workflow for Both WSS and MOSS !

The Three-State Workflow - The Forgotten Out-Of-The-Box Workflow for Both WSS and MOSS

Many people believe that MOSS comes with only four out-of-the-box workflows (Approval, Collect Feedback, Collect Signatures, and Disposition Approval), and that WSS v3 doesn't come with any out-of-the-box workflows. In actuality, there is another work flow that is available out-of-the-box to both WSS v3 and MOSS—it's called the Three-state workflow.

The reason that even many seasoned SharePoint professionals don't know much about the Three-state workflow is because the feature isn't activated by default—you will have to go into the Site collection features, and activate it.


Once you have activated the Three-state workflow feature, it will be available as a workflow template to all your lists, libraries, and content types.

The Three-state workflow allows you to track the status of an item between three states. This is very useful when tracking issues, project tasks, leads, or other similar items.

I won't bore you with details on how to use it; Microsoft has already done an excellent job of explaining how to use the Three-state Workflow. My mission here is just to let you know that it exists. I will leave you with one small screenshot though, just to whet your appetite. Look at all the options you have for the task and email details for each transition step.

Enjoy!