In today’s digital landscape, organizations deal with an overwhelming amount of content. Managing and organizing this content effectively is crucial for efficient collaboration and information retrieval. SharePoint, Microsoft’s robust collaboration platform, offers a powerful feature called Managed Metadata, which aids in organizing and categorizing content across SharePoint sites and applications. In this article, we will delve into SharePoint Managed Metadata, its key benefits, and how to utilize it effectively.
Understanding SharePoint Managed Metadata
SharePoint Managed Metadata is a centralized repository for organizing and managing terms, tags, and keywords across SharePoint sites and applications. It provides a consistent and structured way to categorize content, making it easier to search, discover, and navigate through information.
Key Benefits of SharePoint Managed Metadata:
- Consistency and Standardization: Managed Metadata promotes consistency in content classification by establishing a controlled vocabulary. It ensures that all users across the organization apply consistent and standardized terms, enhancing search accuracy and content discoverability.
- Improved Search and Navigation: By using Managed Metadata, SharePoint’s search capabilities become more robust. Users can leverage the metadata terms to refine search queries and locate relevant content quickly. Additionally, Managed Metadata enhances navigation by providing dynamic links and navigation hierarchies, enabling users to explore related content easily.
- Cross-Site Content Aggregation: SharePoint Managed Metadata facilitates content aggregation across multiple sites or site collections. By applying consistent metadata to content items, you can create dynamic views and roll-ups that display related information from various sources, empowering users to view and work with content holistically.
- Metadata-Driven Automation: Managed Metadata can be leveraged to automate business processes and workflows. By associating specific metadata values with automated actions, such as document routing or approval processes, organizations can streamline content management and ensure compliance with established business rules.
Utilizing SharePoint Managed Metadata:
- Creating a Term Set: Start by creating a Term Set, which represents a collection of related terms or keywords. Define term hierarchies and relationships to reflect the organizational structure and content categories. Term Sets can be created and managed through the Term Store Management Tool in SharePoint.
- Applying Metadata to Content: Once the Term Set is created, you can apply the metadata to SharePoint content. This can be done manually by selecting appropriate terms from the Term Set while creating or editing items, or through automated processes.
- Building Navigation and Content Aggregation: Utilize Managed Metadata to build navigation hierarchies and create custom views that aggregate content based on specific metadata values. This allows users to explore related content and drill down into specific topics effortlessly.
- Enhancing Search: Leverage Managed Metadata in SharePoint’s search functionality to improve the accuracy and relevance of search results. Users can refine their search queries using metadata terms and apply filters to narrow down results to specific categories or topics.
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