SharePoint Folders vs. Metadata

sharepointmaven.com @gregoryzelfond
SHAREPOINT
FOLDERS vs. METADATA
GREGORY ZELFOND

sharepointmaven.com @gregoryzelfondsharepointmaven.com @gregoryzelfond
About Me
 Gregory Zelfond
 10+ years of experience with SharePoint
 SharePoint advocate, blogger
 Love to solve business problems using code-free, out of
the box SharePoint configurations
 Owner of SharePoint Maven (sharepointmaven.com)

About SharePoint Maven
I HELP ORGANIZATIONS TO UNLOCK
THE POWER OF SHAREPOINT
MIGRATION CONSULTING TRAINING

What’s wrong with folders?
1. Usability (finding files)
2. URL Length limitation
3. File URL & Sharing
4. Security
5. File duplication
6. 1 lonely view
7. No filtering/sorting/grouping
8. Change is hard
9. Lost documents
10. No breadcrumb
11. 5,000 item limit threshold
12. Cost
13. Empty folders
14. Data Integrity

Reason # 1: Usability
 Can you (easily) make sense of
this folder structure?
 Would you be able to find the
document easily?
 Every person has their own
“mental” map on how to
organize files & documents

Reason # 2: URL Length limitation
https://company.sharepoint.com/SharedDocuments/
Clients/Projects/Year/Agenda.docx
Folder Folder Folder File
The total length of URL (server name +
list name + all folders + file name)
cannot exceed 256 characters!
Server List

Reason # 3: File URL
 Moving file from one folder to another means
change of file URL!
 Example:
OLD: https://company.sharepoint.com/SharedDocuments/Clients/Projects/Year/Agenda.docx
NEW: https://company.sharepoint.com/SharedDocuments/Clients/Projects/Agenda.docx
 Did you share the file with someone by
sending URL to the file?
– When you move file from one folder to another, “old”
URL is no longer relevant…

Reason # 4: Security
 Managing security at a folder level is an
administrative nightmare!
 20 folders in a library = 20 different security
configurations!!!
 Also, each time you break the security
inheritance from site/document library, your
SharePoint performance is impacted!

Reason # 5: File Duplication
 Each folder can contain 1
“unique” file name
 That means same file can be in
multiple folders in same
document library
 Which one is the right
document?
 No single source of truth…

Reason # 6: 1 lonely view
With folders, not much choice
for viewing files…

Reason # 7: No filtering, sorting or grouping
…In contrast to metadata, where
you can group, sort & filter

Reason # 8: Change is hard!
 Changing set folder structures is hard
 They just become deeper and wider with time
 “Restructuring” folders is a challenge and is
rarely done anyway
 Metadata allows for quick and easy change

Reason # 9: Lost documents
 With folders, documents
can easily become “lost” in
nested folder hierarchy
 This leads to frustration for
users and unnecessary file
duplication

Reason # 10: No breadcrumb
 Can you tell which
library or folder I am
in?
 There is no way for
users to know current
folder hierarchy
 Limited breadcrumb
for navigation (does
not show full path)

Reason # 11: 5000 item limit threshold
 View cannot contain more than 5,000 items (folders + files)
 Displaying a folder with > 5,000 files will cause issues
 Metadata and indexing resolve the issue
 To learn more, read this blog post: http://sharepointmaven.com/how-
to-overcome-sharepoint-5000-item-limit-threshold/

Reason # 12: Cost
 If you use folders in SharePoint, you
essentially converted SharePoint into an
expensive file share or DropBox
– “We have always done it this way” mentality
– You might be better off going back to file share

Reason # 13: Empty Folders
 Can you tell which folders contain files and
which are empty? With folders, you can’t
 Metadata allows you to see how many files
belong to certain metadata property (in
parenthesis, when you group)
 Better user experience!

Reason # 14: Data Integrity
 What’s the difference between 2 folders?
– Client A
– Client A, Inc.?
 If you rely on folder name to carry important
piece of information (i.e. company name), you
are prone to data integrity issues
 Possible issues
– Folder names can be misspelled
– No single naming convention
– You have to recreate same names somewhere else

Should I never use folders in SharePoint?
 Folders are great for:
– Small teams
– Informal file organization
– Short projects
 Metadata is great for:
– Larger teams
– When documents need to be shared with lots of people
– When there are a lot of content contributors (users who
generate/upload files) and consumers (users who
find/access files)
– Any time you need to easily find documents

Need help with SharePoint?
 SharePoint Site Configuration and Customization
 Document Migration to SharePoint
 SharePoint Implementation Strategy
 SharePoint Training
 SharePoint User Adoption
 SharePoint Governance
 SharePoint Project Management

THANK YOU!
Visit: sharepointmaven.com
Email: greg@sharepointmaven.com
Follow: @gregoryzelfond
Connect: linkedin.com/company/sharepoint-maven
View: www.slideshare.net/gzelfond
Get in touch if you have questions

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