SharePoint content approval vs approval workflow

Question

I have a SharePoint 2013 publishing site collection set up with the OOB SharePoint 2010 publishing approval workflow on the document library. This works as expected until I use the Approve/Reject option (content approval) from the document drop down menu. Approving the document in this way will approve the document yet cancel the workflow running. As a result, under the workflow status column in the document library it will state canceled, and not send out the email to say it has been approved.

From what I gather this is an expected outcome (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2551474) in that approving the document by clicking on the ellipsis next to the document, and clicking on Approve/Reject manually overrides the workflow. Is there a way to change this so that the Approve/Reject button will not manually override the workflow, but instead use the workflow to approve the document?

Thanks

Answer 1

Go into SPD, make a copy of your approval workflow (to retain the original in case you make a mistake). Navigate to "change behavior of a single task" and find the entry "When a Task Completes". insert the action "Set content approval status to Approved with [this is your message to be seen in workflow history]" between "If Current Task:Outcome equals Approved" and "then Log assigned to [%Current Task:Assigned To%] to the workflow history list.

This will approve the document by changing it from either "Pending" or "Draft" into Approved after the workflow gets approved.