SharePoint Metadata Management Strategy

Tip: Use Content Types whenever possible

Problem:

Let's say our documents are kept in nested folder structures like this and don't have metadata columns:

Folder(Year 2016)-->Folder(Department Sales)-->Folder(Invoices)-->Document1.xlsx

Folder(Year 2017)-->Folder(Department Marketing)-->Folder(Presentations)-->Document2.pptx

In a library or file system with 1,000 documents your users will have a bad time clicking and navigating into each folder to locate the documents.

Solution:

Instead, you can get rid of these folders and define your own document type that will keep department, category and year information related to the document. It is possible by creating a new content type in SharePoint.

A content type can be defined at site level or at a specific list (library) level and can be inherited from another content type generally. In a content type you define the related columns(metadata) or pick from the existing site and list columns.

Example:

In SharePoint we create a new content type “organization document” and describe that each “organization document” needs to have year, department and category columns.

Then the library will look like this:

Document1.xlsx Columns: Year (2016), Department (Sales), Category (Invoices)

Document2.pptx Columns: Year (2017), Department (Marketing), Category (Presentations)

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Benefits:

• Users can now filter and sort the library by year, column and category columns and easily locate the documents.
• The SharePoint search will index these columns, enhancing search accuracy and result relevance. Advanced search filters will allow users to narrow down search results based on specific criteria.
• Users can directly upload the document to the library without navigating first to the necessary folder.
• If the default content type is set to 'organization document,' users can input category, year, and department information while uploading or creating a new document.
• Over time, these additional columns will facilitate easier migration and archiving operations.

Allow management of content types in SharePoint for a list/library:

• Go to Settings - Library Settings-Advanced Settings