Microsoft has updated the roadmap for SharePoint to include new features. This time, they’re giving document libraries some much needed love. Lets take look at the official roadmap description for this item:
We are bringing the goodness of List templates to SharePoint document libraries. Creating document libraries will now be a breeze with our ready-made templates with scenario relevant content, structure, metadata, and content types – all to save you time and maintain broader consistency across your content management organization.
These is all we’ve been given at this point in terms of juicy details. The rollout will begin in October 2023. Unlike most updates, the Targeted Release (previously known as Early Release) tenants will not the first to receive this update. The Release Phases section of this roadmap item only have a single phase, General Availability. That means you won’t have to wait long before seeing this in your tenant! That’s great news for everyone, and indicates a high level of confidence in the feature.
So what types of templates are going to be included? List templates have had these options for a awhile now, and the interface is beautiful. I expect the library templates to be similar, and offer a lot of quality of life to the New Library experience.
I’d personally love to see a Policies and Procedures library template, because I’ve seen a high demand for these systems, and I’ve always had to create them by hand.
I can see Expense Reports as another option, but the team at Microsoft surely has about a dozen or so templates that’ll all drop at the same time. I’m excited to see what’s coming, and will provide an update as soon as I see these live.
What’s important with this update is that we’re not just getting library templates. The description indicates the following features:
- Content
- Structure
- Metadata
- Content Types
Personally, I think content types are one of the biggest items on that list. Having content types as part of this likely means that we’ll see these being included in the Content Type Hub in the SharePoint Admin Center. Having them up at this level means that every library that uses the content type will all start with the same string of characters.
This is by design, and allows you to easily search for all content of that content type. Since all content using the Document content type will start with the same characters in the Content Type ID, you can use KQL to issue a query similar to this:
ContentTypeID:0x0101*
This would find all documents, even if they used a content type that derives from the Document content type. This is incredibly powerful for finding all content of that type, even if it’s been customized on a given site.
Stay tuned for updates on this topic, especially when we get into October and this feature gets deployed!