Screen Location: Space Tools → Workflows → Workflows tab → Workflow Action → Initilize States
Overview
This option, chosen from the actions menu on a workflow, allows you to transition all content for the associated workflow in to a specific state within that workflow.
Select the desired state from the drop-down list and click the Initialize button. All content that the workflow is applied to will be transitioned to the selected state.
When would I want to do this?
The most common use is after applying a workflow which uses same-space publishing to a large amount of already-published content in order to force it directly in to the Published (final=true) workflow state to ensure view only users can access it.
What are "unprocessed" pages?
When a workflow is first applied to a page in Space Mode, only the link to the workflow is created (and any page restrictions, if using Same-space publishing, are applied). The page (or blog post) itself won't actually transition in to the initial workflow state, despite it appearing that way when you look at the Workflow Status Bar. If you look at the Activity Report - Content for such pages, you'll see that there are no workflow-specific entries listed. These pages are referred to as "unprocessed".
As soon as any workflow-related action occurs, such as changing states or working on tasks, new entries will be added to the Activity Report and the page will be considered "processed" by the workflow.
Override current state
By default, only unprocessed pages will be affected when you intiialize workflow states. If you tick the "Override current state" checkbox, the transition will also be applied to content that is considered "processed".
