Effectively Using Metadata in Lists and Libraries

Essentially, metadata is “data about data,” and even users who don’t use SharePoint have experience with it every day. Any file created will have some metadata associated with it. For example, a simple Microsoft Word document needs to have a filename, which is a key piece of metadata. In addition, it will have a creation date and last modified date, and then Microsoft Word allows users to add additional metadata to the document. SharePoint 2010 exposes this basic metadata that is embedded in the document and allows administrators to add new metadata columns in document libraries that store the files.

Lists are essentially nothing but metadata, unless one or more attachments are added to an item in a list. Administrators and power users will very quickly become accustomed to adding metadata columns when working with lists.

This section starts with an investigation into the interaction between metadata stored in a Word 2010 document and the library that ends up housing that document. Following this, a high-level walk-through is provided, covering the column choices included in SharePoint 2010. The chapter then provides tips and notes on certain column types, and then a series of exercises to help administrators and power users gain hands-on experience with metadata.