Forum Discussion
Editing Site Columns on Sub-Sites Doesn't modify the parent Site Column
To my knowledge, changes made to a site column at a sub-site or application level are not intended to be passed upstream so as to preserve the integrity of SharePoint's administrative structure.
As for limiting the editing of site columns to only top site/source level, I do not believe there to be a configuration item in SharePoint Online to restrict the editing of site columns downstream; SharePoint treats site columns brought downstream more as templates that can be changed, although it does allow for configuration changes made at the site column's source to be passed downstream to any site or application using that column.
This is very disappointing.
I am worried about sub-site admins modifying site columns by adding or modifying "choices" to the list at a sub-site level. The system will quickly break down if every sub-site admin starts managing the company wide site columns at their sub-site levels.
The result will be every sub-site/document library having different choices on what are supposed to be company wide standard terms.
If you are concerned specifically about Choice columns, you might consider using a site column of type Lookup, instead. Place the lookup target list of choices at the top level and don't allow sub-site admins write access to it.
RichardSharp11 So I have set up several columns this way but I'm noticing one serious missing problem. When you place the lookup site column on the document libraries you can't set the default value. I think the default value has to be set on the top site collection level.
Is there a way around this? Maybe a work flow? ..... would probably be too hardcore to set up for every doc library....
- Totally agree with Matt comments!
