SharePoint Content Types and Inheritance: A Simple Guide

Content Types are an essential part of managing and organizing information in SharePoint. They provide a way to define and manage the metadata and behavior of a document or item in a centralized, reusable way.

Content Type inheritance allows you to create new Content Types that are based on existing ones, inheriting their properties and behavior, as we will see with the examples below.

This, I hope will serve as a go-to guide for understanding Content Types and Content Type inheritance, providing a comprehensive overview.

?? Here are the five key takeaways that you will learn from this newsletter:?

• What is Content Type Inheritance and how does it work??
• How to create a parent Content Type for all project documents?
• How to add or modify metadata, template, workflow, and policy settings for the parent Content Type?
• How to create child Content Types for different types of project documents?
• How to inherit or override settings from the parent Content Type for each child Content Type?

?? What are Content Types??

Content Types are a way of organizing and managing the information in your SharePoint site. A Content Type is a collection of settings that define the properties, behavior, and appearance of a type of content. For example, you can create a Content Type for invoices, and specify the metadata, template, workflows, and policies that apply to all invoices in your site.?

?? Why use Content Types??

Content Types help you to ensure consistency, accuracy, and efficiency in your information management. By using Content Types, you can:?

• Apply the same metadata, template, workflows, and policies to all items of a certain type, regardless of where they are stored.?
• Reuse the same Content Type across different lists, libraries, sites, and site collections.?
• Customize the forms and views for each Content Type, to display the relevant information and actions for each type of content.?
• Enable users to create new items of a certain Content Type with a single click, using the predefined template and settings.?

What is Content Type Inheritance??

Content Type Inheritance allows you to create new Content Types based on existing ones and inherit the settings from the parent Content Type. For example, you can create a Content Type for contracts, and then create a child Content Type for service contracts, that inherits the settings from the parent Content Type, but also adds some additional settings specific to service contracts.?

Examples of Content Types and Inheritance?

To illustrate the concept of Content Types and Inheritance, let's look at two examples:?

Example 1: Policy Content Type?

Suppose you want to manage the policies of your organization in #SharePoint.

You can create a Content Type for policies, and define the following settings:?

• Metadata: policy number, policy name, policy owner, policy category, policy status, policy review date, etc.?
• Template: a Word document template that has the policy format and style.?
• Policy: a policy that enforces the retention and disposition of policies.?

Now, you can create child Content Types for different types of policies, such as HR policies, IT policies, Finance policies, etc. Each child Content Type can inherit the settings from the parent Content Type, and also add or modify some settings to suit the specific type of policy.

For example, the HR policy Content Type can have an additional metadata field for employee group, and a different policy category value.?

You can now ensure that all policies have the same basic settings, and also have some flexibility to customize them for different scenarios.?

Example 2: Project Document Content Type?

What about managing Project documents in SharePoint? You can create a Content Type for project documents, and define the following settings:?

• Metadata: project name, project manager, project phase, document type, document author, document date, etc.?
• Template: a Word document template that has the project logo and header.?
• Policy: a policy that enforces the archiving and deletion of project documents.?

Now, you can create child Content Types for different types of project documents, such as project charter, project plan, project report, project risk register, etc. Each child Content Type can inherit the settings from the parent Content Type, and also add or modify some settings to suit the specific type of document. For example, the project plan Content Type can have an additional metadata field for project milestones, and a different document type value.?

As we can see, Content Types and Content Type inheritance are powerful concepts to understand for managing and organizing information in SharePoint.

By defining and managing metadata and behavior in a centralized, reusable way, Content Types provide a flexible and efficient way to work with documents and items. Content Type inheritance allows for the creation of new Content Types based on existing ones, streamlining the process of managing complex information structures.

I hope this has provided a comprehensive overview of these features and their effective use, serving as a valuable resource for anyone working with SharePoint.