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.
Also take into account the tools to interact with your content. Do you only plan to use the web interface or also use Teams or use OneDrive for Business client?
Do you plan to drag and drop files from File Explorer or emails from Outlook, ...
Support for metadata is limited and as a result requires discipline from the user(s) to set metadata consistently.
Paul | SLIM Applications
I guess ideally I'd like to use Windows Explorer together with a SharePoint document library sync, but I'm [somewhat pessimistically] guessing that document metadata doesn't sync through, so I'll likely need to use a SharePoint page. Not interested in Teams, nor OneDrive (i.e. personal SharePoint), nor drag'n'drop (no enforcement of required metadata).
Basic premise is that the Document Set is programmatically created based on my CRM stage, complete with all required metadata (e.g. Client, Document Type, Proposal ID etc). I then open each document in Word/Excel/Whatever desktop app and add content. Once complete, I intend to programmatically convert to Acrobat PDF format and send to client.
All I actually want to do manually, is write the content.
But outside of that heavily automated sales process, I also want to be able to search/filter my documents based on the metadata contained within the document properties e.g. client wants an update to a proposal, I just want to search/filter based on the Proposal ID or Client, for example.
I know this is all possible in solutions like Docuware, I just don't like Docuware! (and it's bloody expensive!).