Sharepoint 2013 : Configure Metadata Navigation in a List or Document Library

Enable or Disable Folders in a List or Document Library


Scenario/Problem: You want to enable or display folders in a list or library. For example, say that you want to prevent users from creating subfolders in a document library, or you want users to create list items in a folder structure inside a list.


Solution: To enable or disable folders in lists and libraries, you go to the list or library settings page by switching to the List ribbon or Library ribbon and clicking the List Settings or Library Settings button. On the settings page, you click the Advanced Settings link to get to the Advanced Settings page of the list or library. On that page, you choose Yes or No for the Make New Folder Command Available option, which is located in the Folders section of the page.

Configure Metadata Navigation in a List or Document Library


Scenario/Problem: You want to make it easy for users to find documents or list items by specific columns, in a better interface than the filtering option available in list views.


Solution: Metadata navigation option is available on some sites (if it is not available in your site, ask the site administrator to activate the “Metadata Navigation and Filtering” site feature). This includes searching for documents that were modified in a range of dates, or navigating the folders in a document library using a tree-like mechanism. Finally, for filtering managed metadata columns this interface is very helpful—showing you the terms from the metadata term set in a tree—allowing the user to select a term, thereby filtering the items shown in the list to show only items with that term, or the terms that are under it in the hierarchy as shown in Figure 1.

FIGURE 1 A library showing managed metadata navigation for folders, products, and modified date.

To configure metadata navigation for a list or a library, open the library or list’s settings page by switching to the Library ribbon and clicking the Library Settings button. In the settings page, click on the Metadata Navigation Settings link, as shown in Figure 2.

FIGURE 2 The Metadata Navigation Settings link in the list settings.

The page that opens allows you to set three different options, as shown in Figure 3, and explained in the following sections.

FIGURE 3 The Metadata Navigation Settings page.

Configure Navigation Hierarchies

In this section you can choose one or more hierarchy fields. As shown in Figure 3, only some types of columns are hierarchical. The columns you choose will be added as a tree structure on the side of the library view, allowing the users to navigate the library or list by clicking on one of the values.


Note

If you want to select just the Folders option, you also have to specify a key filter. Selecting just Folders in the navigation hierarchies will not cause the navigation hierarchy to show.


Configure Key Filters

In this section you can choose the columns you want to display in the Key Filters section of the side bar (refer to Figure 1). You can select one or more columns and add it to the list of selected key filters.

Configure Automatic Column Indexing for This List

This section allows you to override the default behavior of the managed metadata navigation by disabling it, modifying the column indices automatically. It is recommended you don’t change this unless you have a specific need to do so.