Comments on: Folders and Metadata Rehashed

By: eric

eric — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:32:29 +0000

@Jeff

A couple things come to mind. One, never try to return all 20k documents, that would be asking for trouble.

Two, create multiple views. The logical approach here is to have a view for each application, then use columns to refine the data more and group things accordingly.

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:04:07 +0000

Here at “GlobeBestridingMegacorp” (I’m not representing them officially here), we’ve learned the “never say metadata!” lesson, too. One too many groups of glazed eyed zombie users who return to their desks and immediately start creating folders, because it’s all they KNOW, I suppose…

We HAVE had good luck using the term “tagging,” and explaining it using other public web sites with which users may be familiar – del.icio.us, for instance. Coaching users/groups to select the right “set of tags” is one of our first steps and we’re much more confident and savvy end users are a result. Helping them understand that even if they start with only a column or two of tags, they can always add more later if they choose to has gone a long way towards acceptance.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:00:59 +0000

It makes sense, but what do you recommend if a department site has 20,000 documents related to application documentation for applications that a department supports. Wouldn’t that list of documents be too long?

By: Wanda

Wanda — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:52:40 +0000

My favorite illustration, that usually produces an “Ah Ha moment”, is to describe drilling through 4 levels of nested folders to find NOTHING ! Everyone understands that frustration. Then I show how the GroupBy will display a count of items in that group and then they get it.

By: eric

eric — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:28:59 +0000

That’s another victory for metadata!

By: Robyn

Robyn — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:59:08 +0000

I had a similar session with a client last week via Webex. She’s also a SharePoint novice. I explained the advantages of columns and views, and she agreed somewhat but still wanted to use folders.

As we spoke, I set up a couple of columns and views. When she saw the organization begin to take shape she said, “Oh, now I get it.” Nice moment.