SharePoint Designer is an advanced tool used by high-level
business administrators and developers who need to extend the
out-of-the-box SharePoint 2013 functionality. If you want to create a
new workflow from scratch, you will need to use SharePoint Designer.
At the time of this writing, SharePoint Designer 2013 is supported
on the following operating systems only: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows
Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012. You can download the software
directly from Microsoft or your IT staff can provide you with a
download, as needed.
Create a list workflow in SharePoint Designer
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On a list on your SharePoint site, on the ribbon, click the Library tab.
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In the Settings section, click the lower half of the Workflow Settings icon.
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On the menu that appears, click the Create A Workflow In SharePoint Designer command.
Tip
When you first start SharePoint Designer 2013, if you are prompted
with a warning asking “Do you want to allow this website to open a
program on this computer?” you can click the Allow button to approve
this action. Additionally, you can clear the check box to display this
warning each time in the future.
Tip
Your workflow must include a “Go to End of Workflow” stage
transition. You will be unable to publish the workflow without this
final transition, which specifies for the workflow to finish processing
after all tasks are complete.
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In the Create List Workflow dialog box, enter a name and description for the workflow.
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Choose the Platform Type for this workflow.
Note: the remaining instructions are written for SharePoint 2013.
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Click OK.
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Add new items to the workflow. For each item, do the following:
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Click a point to insert the item within the workflow.
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Select one of the insert buttons to see a list of items that can be added at the current point.
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On the ribbon, click the Workflow tab. In the Save group, click Publish to publish your workflow on the SharePoint site.
Tip
SharePoint 2013 Foundation users can use only SharePoint
2010 workflows. SharePoint 2013 workflows are limited to Office 365
SharePoint users and users of Standard and Enterprise editions.
