Forum Discussion
Eat My Cake? SharePoint Search Folders
- For what you are describing, you may just be able to use "regular" folders. You can propagate metadata using Column default value settings so that solves (1) and for (2), the answer is yes. You can use Content Types if each document has different properties or just add a column called Document Type if they all share the same properties (i.e. Client Name). When you create a folder for each Client Name, set a default in Library settings. This seems a lot simpler than using document sets. I would consider document sets if I have a library of JUST proposals so I can keep all the files associated with a proposal together and have a standard "set up" for each proposal set. But, for what you are describing, I would first try using a Folder per client AND a Site Column that you add to the library for Client Name.
to do this, I recommend using Content Types, this will allow you to assign document specific metadata and provide you the ability to sort, group, filter and view files in a wide variety of ways. see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/introduction-to-content-types-and-content-type-publishing-e1277a2e-a1e8-4473-9126-91a0647766e5 to get started. I also recommend reading articles from Susan_Hanley who is an expert on this subject, see https://www.susanhanley.com/white-papers
Dean_Gross You don't have to use content types, necessarily. It just depends on whether the content is in the same library or not. I think most users find it hard to remember to select the content type when they are uploading files. Document Sets or Folders or even unique libraries with shared content types might be the right option - it really depends. I don't know if I've written a lot on this because there is really no one consistently right or best way to do this. To get the outcome in the initial post, I might use multiple libraries or document sets and then pull all the content together for each Client on a page, which can easily surface content from multiple locations using doc lib or highlighted content web parts.
So if I had one Document Library containing only the Document Set Content Type, with each of those Document Sets made up of proposals, invoices etc., each with associated metadata e.g. 'Document Type' and 'Client' , would I then be able to filter the Document Library based on that metadata e.g. Client = Client A, Document Type = Proposal?
I am, of course, assuming that:
(1) Document Set metadata requirements are distributed down into document properties and
(2) Document properties are surfaced up to the Document Library e.g. via columns.What does a Document Library made up of only Document Sets look like if sync'd to Windows Explorer? Folders with files?
- For what you are describing, you may just be able to use "regular" folders. You can propagate metadata using Column default value settings so that solves (1) and for (2), the answer is yes. You can use Content Types if each document has different properties or just add a column called Document Type if they all share the same properties (i.e. Client Name). When you create a folder for each Client Name, set a default in Library settings. This seems a lot simpler than using document sets. I would consider document sets if I have a library of JUST proposals so I can keep all the files associated with a proposal together and have a standard "set up" for each proposal set. But, for what you are describing, I would first try using a Folder per client AND a Site Column that you add to the library for Client Name.
- I am currently playing with the Document Set content type to create my per-contract document set, but this is actually raising more questions because then I'd want folders of just proposals (or whatever) and folders for just clients. Feel like I might be making a rod for my own back!
Nothing comes to mind with configurable Search Folders like you get in packages like Docuware or even Outlook for that matter?
Thanks for the links, will take a look 🙂
