Forum Discussion
Best practice for external sharing: Document Library vs Folder
Hello,
I'd like to start a discussion to learn about your point of view regarding best practices for sharing content with external users. I'm currently faced with the following scenario and que...
Here are a few things that make libraries a better choice
- Doc libraries provide a search boundary that folders do not, i.e., you can limit a search to a library, you can't do this with a folder
- you can create custom views in each doc library, Folders only exist in one specific hierarchy, views provide many more options for display
- you can activate different content types in each library
- Different settings can be enabled/disabled in each doc library
- PowerApps and Flows are associated with libraries, not with folders
As I have said in another similar thread, for my customers I usually create a Group for each partner.
This approach, IMHO has all the advantages that Dean mentioned above about multiple doclibs, plus some extras that are often considered useful: for each Group (i.e. for each partner), apart from a completely isolated doclib, you will have a modern team site, a conversation space, a calendar, a notebook and the possibility to add Teams, Planner and so on.
Also, be aware that today this is the trend pushed by Microsoft.
Just my two cents...