Often you need to make it so a document in a library is still viewable, but nobody can change it or make any update to its.
In other words, you need to lock a document.
Using SharePoint permissions for this often turns into a nightmare because there is no indication for everyone except the owner that this document has special access like that. And what if you need to unlock it at a later date?
Luckily there is a solution for this, and it's called [Declaring an in-place record].
Here is how to set it up on a library (one-time setup):
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Go to the site where your document library is residing and go to [Site Settings] of that site
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Click [Site collection features] and activate the feature called [In Place Records Management]
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Now go to the library where you want to enable this locking. Go to this [library settings]
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Click [Record declaration settings] and select an option for [Always allow the manual declaration of records]
That's it for the one time set up.
Now, users can simply go to the library and declare a record by selecting a file and going to [More] -> [Compliance details] -> [Declare as an in-place record]
(same steps to undeclare the record, provided the user is allowed to do that)
![Declaring a record in SharePoint](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c8037c77a1fbd35eda4775c/1598906648171-3NQWMPHA5MVZ04QFX3M5/Declaring+a+record+in+SharePoint)
As a result, the file will be locked, and everyone can see its special status with an icon displayed next to its name
![Document declared as a SharePoint record](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c8037c77a1fbd35eda4775c/1598906724418-XY5DLE53R365D66Q2ZTJ/Document+declared+as+a+SharePoint+record)
This setting is incredibly convenient if you combine it with an automated workflow that locks documents once approved. It eliminates the need for creating PDF for approvals.