SharePoint 2010 - Document Management - Part 2

Introduction
In this part of the Document Management series I would like to talk about metadata. What is metadata:

"Metadata is data about data"

Just look at the following examples:

• Who modified the document?
• Which version is this document?
• What type of document is this?

Most users, probably without knowing this, are familiar with metadata and have worked with it for many years. I am talking of course about a file share folder structure:

• IT  
• Meeting Minutes
• 2010
• 2011
• 2012
• Templates
• Old
• New
• Ect.

These days are over by using out-of-the-box SharePoint DM functionalities.

SharePoint metadata

Documents are stored in document libraries. A document library automatically provides metadata:

This example shows metadata such as Modified and Modified By. In SharePoint, metadata is provided by columns. The columns are displayed in a view, by default this view is called All Documents. The owner of a document library can edit this view. Go the ribbon and click at Library and Modify View. You now have to ability to show or remove metadata:

Just select, or deselect, certain columns and don't forget the positioning. The above example shows a wide selection of columns but in most cases these are not sufficient. Let's say you have a document library for a project and you want to categorize your documents by project phase. In the old situation you would create a folder structure:

• Project A
• Project phase
• Initiation 
• Preparation
• Realization
• Implementation
• Adoption

Instead of using folders we can create a new column called Project phase. Click in the ribbon at Library and Create Column:

Name the column Project phase and select the type Choice, the following menu will appear:

I would recommend setting the column at required so users need to select a phase. Also leave Default value blank otherwise users, by accident, select the wrong phase.


All users are now obligated to choose a project phase but for some reason it is possible to leave it empty and save the document. To be honest I don't understand why the document cannot get blocked but it does get checked out. This means that other users cannot see the document until the user decides to check in the document. So be sure to teach your users about this!

I upload a couple of documents and attached a project phase:

The users are no able to see the corresponding project phase for each document. It's also easy to filter documents by project phase. Hoover the mouse over the column and click at the drop down menu:

Pretty cool right? :) There is only one problem, what will happen when 100 documents are added in the library? The view will become a mess and not really user friendly. There is a solution for this! It is called the group by function. This function is easy to configure. Click in the ribbon at Library and Modify View. Just scroll down until you see Group By and select the project phase column and save the view. Behold:

The users don't have to go through a set of folders but can select the desired phase and see all documents. They can also navigate to other documents just by clicking at another project phase! This is also still in the same screen. Believe me, this is a lot more user friendly then folders. Another downside of folders is the possibility that users upload the same document in different folders.

Do you still see the column project phase as a column? This is not necessary anymore because we already use it for the grouping. Just remove it from the view.

There is one last really important thing you have to remember, when a user uploads one document there is a pop-up to enter the metadata. This does not happen when a user uploads multiple documents! This still has not been resolved since MOSS 2007 and I really hope this get fixed in "SharePoint 15".  The document library will contain, for example, 20 documents without any attached metadata. You don't want your users to edit 20 documents separately. I advise the following workaround:

Show the project phase column in the view again and open the library in the datasheet view:

You get an Access view of the list and just select a project phase and drag it down, like in Excel, to quickly attach metadata. Works like a charm :)

Tips and tricks

I hope you find this article useful and see the advantage of metadata in a document library. I want to conclude with the following tips!

Use the group by function instead of folders
Folders make navigating a pain and users can post the same document in different folders. The group by function provides a easy navigation solution for your users.

Turn off the create folder option
Do you want to be sure that your users don't use folders? Disable this feature in the advanced settings of the document library.


Don't push everything into one document library
Although the group by function is really helpful, you can only use it with two columns. There will be situation where you cannot make it work. You can use metadata navigation (will talk about this in a different article) but there is also no shame in creating an additional document library.

Always define metadata before you start uploading documents
Uploading a hundred documents and finding out you want to use metadata can be really frustrating and time consuming. I always advise to ask yourself the following questions:

1. How do you want to structure your documents?
2. Do you want to use versioning?
3. How do you want display your documents?
4. What permissions apply?

Datasheet view for quick metadata assigning

So you are in the situation where you added metadata afterwards or you upload multiple documents? Make sure the columns are shown in the view and use the datasheet view to quickly assign metadata!

Save documents from local Office clients

Teach your users that it is easy to save Office documents directly into SharePoint by entering the document library URL in the save as box.

Posted in: Document Management, Metadata, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Online 2010