For years, one of the most fundamentally powerful capabilities in SharePoint has been Content Types. Content Types should underlie all good information architectures, along with customized metadata (Site Columns) and managed metadata which embodies the taxonomy for *your* organization. Yet far too often SharePoint users simply upload Documents into Document Libraries and wonder why no magic happens. In this class, we’ll demystify some of these basic SharePoint capabilities to show you how you can really make your Intranet, Team Site, or Publishing Sites sing. It doesn’t matter if you’re on SharePoint 2007, 2010, or 2013, or on SharePoint Online in Office365. With search underlying so much of the value that SharePoint offers these days, a good understanding of these concepts is imperative to ensure your success.

1. CONTENT TYPES: LOVE
THEM OR LOSE IT
Marc D Anderson

2. EVENT
SPONSORS
• Diamond, Platinum & Gold
sponsors have tables
• Please visit them and inquire
about their products & services
• Also they have lots of awesome
schwag that you can’t live
without! 

3. WHO IS MARC?
• Over 30 years of experience in technology professional services and
software development. Over a wide-ranging career in consulting as well
as line manager positions, Marc has proven himself as a problem solver
and leader who can solve difficult technology problems for
organizations across a wide variety of industries and organization sizes.
• Awarded Microsoft MVP for SharePoint Server 2011-2015

4. SESSION OVERVIEW
• For years, one of the most fundamentally powerful capabilities in SharePoint has
been Content Types. Content Types should underlie all good information
architectures, along with customized metadata (Site Columns) and managed
metadata which embodies the taxonomy for your organization. Yet far too often
SharePoint users simply upload Documents into Document Libraries and wonder
why no magic happens.
• In this class, we’ll demystify some of these basic SharePoint capabilities to show you
how you can really make your Intranet, Team Site, or Publishing Sites sing. It
doesn’t matter if you’re on SharePoint 2007, 2010, or 2013, or on SharePoint Online
in Office365. With search underlying so much of the value that SharePoint offers
these days, a good understanding of these concepts is imperative to ensure your
success.

10. WHAT IS A CONTENT TYPE?
• A collection of structured and unstructured data that taken together
represents a business object
• Inherits from an existing Content Type and is built up by adding additional
Site Columns

11. WHAT IS A CONTENT TYPE NOT?
• It’s not a file type, e.g., DOCX or XLSX
• It’s not [usually] just a media type, e.g., movie, document, etc.

12. YOU SEE CONTENT TYPES EVERY TIME
YOU USE SHAREPOINT
The out of the box Content Types are generic and
don’t represent your business objects
Item Document
Event Announcement
Task

13. WHEN IN DOUBT, USE A CONTENT TYPE
• Benefits
• Consistent structure
• Easier management
• Improved search
• Move content through a process with workflow
• Downside
• Up front planning and implementation work

14. CONTENT TYPES ARE COLLECTIONS
OF SITE COLUMNS…
Inherited
columns
Content
Type specific
columns
System-
managed
Name

15. …PLUS SOME OTHER SHAREPOINT
GOODNESS
• Workflows
• Retention policies
• Site Columns become managed properties for search

16. NEW CONTENT TYPES INHERIT
FROM EXISTING CONTENT TYPES
Inherited
columns
Content
Type specific
columns
System-
managed
Name

17. CONTENT TYPES ENABLE YOU TO…
• Show me all of the Proposals we lost in the last
month
• How many Status Updates has Ralph authored?
• Let’s show Announcements from across the
departments on the home page
• We should start tracking revenue for each type of
Contract

18. BE A LITTLE PEDANTIC
• Content Types are singular, e.g., Item, Document,
Event
• List and Libraries are plural: e.g., Shared
Documents, Announcements
• Contrary to common belief, words matter

19. CONTENT TYPE HUB
• The Content Type Hub lets you shared
information architecture across Site
Collections
• Hidden Site Collection on Office365 at
https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/
contentTypeHub/
Hidden Content Type Hub on Office365 Tenants http://sympmarc.com/2014/11/25/hidden-content-type-hub-on-office365-tenants

20. RECOGNIZING THE CONTENT TYPE HUB

21. PUBLISHING A CONTENT TYPE

22. TIPS AND TRICKS: MANAGEMENT
• Create groups for Site Columns and Content Types
with leading underscores _

23. TIPS AND TRICKS: MAINTENANCE
Document
Org Base Document
Contract
SharePoint Content Type
Interstitial Content Type
Useful Content Types Real Estate Contract Employment Contract
Parent Content Type

24. TIPS AND TRICKS: REFERENCE DATA
• Use Site Columns in the root of the Site Collection for
lookups
• Centralizes reference data for management
• Can’t be in the Content Type Hub, sadly
• Managed metadata vs. List-based lookups

25. DEMO

26. CONNECTICUT SHAREPOINT USERS GROUP
• Different SharePoint discussions each
month on various topics.
• Meets 3rd Thursday of every month
• Microsoft Office (Hartford)
• 280 Trumbull St, Hartford CT 06103
• http://www.meetup.com/ctspug

27. SPECIAL OCTOBER SESSION!
• Michelle Caldwell (MVP) will be
making a stop at the CTSPUG
• Microsoft Store in West Farms Mall
• Wednesday – October 14th
• Register today!
• http://www.meetup.com/ctspug

28. CONTACT INFORMATION
Email marc.anderson@sympraxisconsulting.com
Twitter @sympmarc
Blog http://sympmarc.com
SPServices http://spservices.codeplex.com
SPXSLT http://spxslt.codeplex.com
Books http://sympmarc.com/books
The Middle Tier Manifesto http://bit.ly/middletier