The major topic in the EndUserSharePoint.com Shanghai workshops this week has been structuring information. The tip of the week is this: Consider creating “buckets” (libraries) for each of your major content areas and utilize views to recreate the feeling of hierarchical structure.

Here’s an example…

The Power User group yesterday was trying to manage all of the documents for global training. They have several major “buckets”: Presentations, Documentation, Training Materials, etc. We decided that all Presentation Material for all presentations for all projects should go into one library. Columns were created that helped define the properties (metadata) for the presentations. Who was the original author? How long is the estimated delivery time? Who is the audience? What level is the content – Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced? What project is it associated with?

By utilizing these types of columns, they can now have a complete archive of all past and current presentations. The added benefit is the ability to filter output through use of the properties (metadata), giving access through customized views.

Why would we do that? Ease of maintenance and access. Now the Training Group has one central location for all presentations. Anyone needing presentation material can create a filtered web part on their project site and point to this library from anywhere within the site collection, pulling in only the documents desired for their specific need.

Clean, simple and works like a charm.

Regards,
Mark

Posts on this week’s EndUserSharePoint.com

• Shanghai – Day 3
• Can I store terrabytes of data in SharePoint?
• Shanghai – Day 2
• How can I display the same calendar on multiple sites?
• Shanghai – Day 1
• Can a list in SharePoint be used as a source for a mail merge in Word 2007?
• Three questions: Three answers
• Links to Live By
• Project based libraries vs master libraries
• How do I get End Users to actually use SharePoint?