One of the big challenges in encouraging SharePoint use at the College has been the question of moving documents from a shared drive (usually the ‘H:’ drive) to SharePoint document libraries.  This is partly because document libraries are one of the most visible and powerful tools in SharePoint, and also one of the features which differentiates SP from a traditional website.

A particular problem has been the question of setting up folders in a SharePoint document library.  Teams understandably want to know how to create a folder structure, and in what specific ways they can improve the (often chaotic) structure of their H: drive folders.  Unfortunately, this isn’t something I’ve always been able to give much advice on other than limiting the folder levels.  The answer depends on how you expect your users to navigate to a file.  Unfortunately, any solution using folders assumes that the user will approach finding a file in the same way as the person who set up the folders (i.e. I’ll make ’skill’ the top level folder, so everyone goes there first, then ‘theme’ my second level folder and so on.)  As we know, brains don’t work like that (but wouldn’t it be easier if they did?)

Unperturbed, I turned to Google for an answer.  To my surprise, almost every guru I read came up with the same answer, which was to ditch folders in document libraries and use content types instead.  A content type is a collection of ‘tags’ you can specify and add to an item.  If that sounds like jargon, consider this.  Think of your Windows Explorer interface.  Have you ever though just how un-useful the default column titles are?  File size, created on, etc.  Yes, they might be useful in some circumstances, but think how cool it would be for a language teacher to replace them with things like ’skill’, ‘theme’, ‘grammatical function’, or ‘level of difficulty’.  That’s exactly what a content type does for you.

With content types you’re liberated from having to drill down through folders in a pre-defined sequence.  Want to find all the ‘reading’ exercises which practice the past simple tense?  2 clicks and you’re done.  Finding the right materials for a specified lesson aim (which we all do don’t we?) becomes a doddle.  It also solves the problem of where to put a file which fulfills more than one folder criteria.  For example if my learning object allows my class to practice speaking and reading, do I put it in the speaking folder or the reading folder (or worse create two copies)?

So why doesn’t everyone use them?  Well, firstly, they’re (gasp) new.  Enough said.  Secondly, you can’t use folders in a content type document library (well, you can, but in doing so you negate all its benefits).  The result is that you end up with a long list of files which appear disorganised (until you filter your search) because they’re not in folders.  Thirdly, people are just used to seeing and using folders, and tend to assume that not using folders is a sign of poor planning on the part of the designer.

What solutions are there?  Like any change, it will take time.  We need to promote use by showcasing exemplar sites, and create a critical mass of users who are comfortable with them and recognise the benefits.  This will then carry over to other sites which those users have access to.  Any other suggestions, on a postcard please….