A reader Ajay asked:
I have a requirement where I need to send automatic emails to the submitter of the out of the box approval workflow once its finished. I tried to create SharePoint workflow for sending email in the item changed event, but no hit. Would be grateful if you can provide a solution for this.
Dear Ajay and other readers, to my amazement, SharePoint designer does not allow you to send an email to workflow initator (you can only send it to document creator which may or may not be the same person). I tried to think of some custom solution but after a couple of ideas I gave up.
Here are the limitations:
- You cannot modify built-in approval workflow with SharePoint designer
- You cannot create a nice looking approval workflow with SharePoint designer
- SharePoint designer cannot access information about Workflow initiator
There is workaround solution you might want to consider, but I am not 100% sure it would work in your scenario.
The solution (unsolicited)
As I wrote before we work closely with Nintex, and I would recommend switching to Nintex Workflow 2007 in your scenario. It is a great SharePoint Workflow tool, and an experienced user can create a workflow based on your specification in a few minutes (see example below).
