Configure and Organize documents in SharePoint – Part 2

There are 4 different ways to configure and manage document library.

• Folders
• Metadata
• Content Type
• Document Set

Part 2 will focus on Metadata Pros and Cons

SharePoint Metadata presents a nice alternative to organizing documents in the SharePoint Document Library.

Metadata is best for:

• Teams that require standardization of their documentation
• Teams that need ability to easily find documents
• Anytime when you have lots of people uploading and accessing the files
• Larger teams

Pros:

1. Organizes documents in a presentable fashion
2. Allows for filtering, grouping, sorting of documents based on their properties
3. Improves User Adoption of SharePoint
4. Excellent way for newbies to find the right documents

Cons:

• Requires setup before documents can be uploaded to SharePoint Document Library
• No out of the box ability to set permissions based on metadata (the whole SharePoint Document library will have same permissions)
• “Open with Windows Explorer” and “Sync to desktop” no longer makes sense as there are no folders (all files sit in 1 flat library/folder)