SharePoint 2010 – Administering Taxonomy Using Term Store Management

Guest Author: Jeff Carr

Now that we’ve developed a fairly solid understanding of the importance of taxonomy as it relates to information management and the user experience, let’s take a look at how it’s administered. Taxonomy management in SharePoint 2010 sees a significant improvement over functionality offered by the product’s predecessors.

First and foremost is the creation of a term store repository, enabling centralized vocabulary management applicable across site collections. Management of taxonomy takes place within the Term Store Management Tool, which is accessible through either Central Administration or Site Administration. Basic functionality provided for the management of taxonomy includes:

• Groups - Represent defined security boundaries in terms of taxonomy governance. Multiple groups may be created within a Managed Metadata Service, with each Group having multiple Terms Sets. Management (create, edit, delete) of Group properties takes place here.
  
  
• Term Sets - One or more Term Sets (up to 1,000) are defined as part of a Group. Term Sets can be created manually or imported through the interface. Management (create, edit, delete) of Term Set properties, including Term hierarchy, takes place here. 
  
  
• Terms - Individual words or phrases are added to a Term Set with management (create, copy, reuse, merge, deprecate, move or delete) taking place here. A maximum of 30,000 Terms can be added to a single Term Set. 
  
  

Guest Author: Jeff Carr

Jeff Carr is an Information Architect and Search Consultant with Earley & Associates specializing in user centered information design. Working with SharePoint since 2003, he has been involved in the design, development and integration of web-based solutions from intranets and extranets to public facing websites for a variety of large enterprises across a wide range of industries.