SharePoint Online Content Type With New Experience

We have recently updated our Tips articles about content types to the latest version of Office 365 and the new experience interface. Using content types is the best way to make sure that items in a SharePoint list or library will have the desired content. A content type is a kind of template that decides what each item should contain, how it should look and which metadata should be collected.

Make similar content look alike
All organizations produce a lot of content, like invoices, quotes, manuals, guidelines and reports, and this content should preferably be created and managed in a consistent way. It should, for example, contain the correct metadata. When each kind of content has its own content type, it is easy for users and managers to create and keep track of SharePoint content.

Quotes library
In my experience, the concept of content types requires some learning. To make it easy to understand, I have recorded some demos on how to create a content type for a Quotes library.

When there is no custom content type in a SharePoint library, users can create any type of document that is allowed by the default Document content type. No metadata columns will be visible, and there is no way to limit the creation choice to a special type of documents, for example Word.

By adding a custom content type to the library and remove the default one (only from this library, of course), I can limit the user choices and give the library the desired columns for metadata.

Word template
To further enhance the content type, I add a Word template to it. I use the Word Quick Parts to create a table where the cells correspond to the metadata columns in the SharePoint library, and this way the required metadata can be easily added to the document and also become printable.

In the final Quotes library it is only possible to create new documents based on my Word template, and even if I cannot force users to actually fill out the metadata it is very easy to do it. The columns are present in the document itself, and dates and values in choice columns can be selected.

Library template
The last step is to save the Quotes library as a template, so that it can be used on other sites. It will now show up among the other templates when you use the "Add an app" command.

Even if I have taken a Quote document content type as an example in the articles, content types can be defined for any item type, including list items, media files and folders. The method is similar whichever item you use, so I hope the Tips articles will be helpful.

By Peter Kalmström
CEO and Systems Designer
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions