SharePoint document libraries provide much more than just a web based version of your file system. When presented with a document library, many users jump into importing the folders from their file shares into SharePoint whilst maintaining the same folder structure and end up with subfolders within subfolders in their document libraries. This may well be a low learning barrier to those users unfamiliar with SharePoint but there is a better, less messy, way.
There are some problems associated with this nested subfolders approach. Firstly, navigation is more complicated and time consuming, clicking through trying to find the content that you require. Secondly, search may not be as effective due to important metadata not being filled in and available to search on as classification is based on folders as opposed to metadata. Thirdly, excessive url length can become an issue when there are many subfolders and long file names. Instead, Document Libraries can be managed by using metadata classification and views. Let’s look at the example below…
Suppose we have a Correspondence folder on our file share. In it there may be the folders – Emails, Letters, Faxes, Memos. The Letters folder may have subfolders relating to the month in which they were received/sent.
In SharePoint this can be represented by setting up 3 additional columns on the document library, then creating a custom view of that document library.
We can set up a choice column called ‘Correspondence Type’ with the values Email, Fax, Letter, Memo.
We can then setup another choice column called ‘Category’ with the values Received and Sent, then finally a Date column called ‘Correspondence Date’ to record when the correspondence was received or sent.
Now we can configure a view grouping and sorting on the columns created above. Create a standard view, choose to group by ‘Correspondence Type’, then by ‘Category’ and sort by ‘Correspondence Date’.
The resulting view of the document library now looks like this
This presents a much more useful view of the content than just folders. Plus search can be configured so that users can search on values contained in the additional metadata we have set up.
I am a PM and am trying to understand how Sharepoint helps to reduce the number and especially the depth of folders. Your example was perfect in bridging that gap!
Thank you.