Tracy van der Schyff

#Office365Challenge – Content Types in SharePoint Part 2. My next couple of blogs will be about the Content Types in SharePoint. Today we’ll cover creating a new content type.

Related Blogs:
Around the Office in 365 Days: Day 128 – Content Types in SharePoint Part 1
Around the Office in 365 Days: Day 93 – Reusable Metadata in SharePoint – Site Columns

Yesterday I gave you a very high level overview of what a content type is. Let’s recap some of that:  A document library has default columns that the app is created with. It uses the Document Content Type. Navigate to the Library Settings > Advanced Settings. Here you’ll see “Allow Management of Content Types”. Select Yes and save:

Now in the Library Settings page, you will see the Content type associated with the App (Library):

Click on the Name of the Content type to open the information page, then click on the Parent Content type to see the “original” content type that was used to create this Library:

This is the Content Type used to create this library. Don’t change anything here, as we’ll go through Site Settings to setup the new Content Type:

Go to Site Settings > Site Content Types:

Filter (1) the “Show Groups” to display the Document Content Types. Here you’ll see the Document Content Type (2) associated with your OTB SharePoint Document Library. Click on Create (3), to start creating your new content type:

I suggest naming all your new content types to start with your company name / acronym. Give a description and choose from the Parent Group and content type (1) as established above. Very Important:  Create a new group for your unique Content types (2). Click OK to save:

Your Content Type is now created, an exact replica of the Content Type used by SharePoint when creating document libraries. We can now add our extra columns. This needs to happen from Site Columns, so if you haven’t created them yet – click on “Add from new site column”.  Note:  Even if you want to add Managed Metadata (Term Store), you have to create a new Site Column which points to the Term Store to add on your Content Type:

Give the column a name and choose Managed Metadata (in this example), to point to the Term Store: 

Select the Term Store level on which the column will expand (open) for the user. Click OK to Save:

Your Content Type now has unique columns. Add all the other columns which are necessary:

Tomorrow we’ll modify the library to now use your new Content Type.

Overview of my challenge: As an absolute lover of all things Microsoft, I’ve decided to undertake the challenge, of writing a blog every single day, for the next 365 days. Crazy, I know. And I’ll try my best, but if I cannot find something good to say about Office 365 and the Tools it includes for 365 days, I’m changing my profession. So let’s write this epic tale of “Around the Office in 365 Days”. My ode to Microsoft Office 365.

Keep in mind that these tips and tricks do not only apply to Office 365 – but where applicable, to the overall Microsoft Office Suite and SharePoint.