Sharepoint 2010 : Administering Enterprise Content Management - Document Management (part 6) - Managed Metadata Fields

1.12 Managed Metadata Fields

Managed Metadata fields are new in SharePoint 2010. These fields allow a user to select a value from Managed Metadata Service term store, which is described in more detail in the next section. Think of these fields as super selector fields. After you have configured these fields, you are presented with a taxonomical tree structure from which to choose a value, as shown in Figure 15. You can add or modify that structure if you have the appropriate permissions within the term store. Because these fields leverage the term store, and the term store is tightly scoped by level, Managed Metadata fields can provide a consistent metadata selection capability across sites collections, Web applications, and farms.

Figure 15. Selecting a value from a Managed Metadata field

Notice the Add New Item link at the top of the page, which can be used to contribute to the term set behind this field.

Managed Metadata fields can be added as columns to content types, lists, or document libraries. When adding a column, select the Managed Metadata type from the options list. You will then be able to select a term set from the term store or create a customized term set for the new column. A customized term set will be stored in the term store within the group created for the local site collection and can be promoted to the enterprise taxonomy at a later time by a term store manager, a group manager, or a contributor. Figures Figure 16 and Figure 17 show the options available for selecting or creating a term set when creating a new Managed Metadata field.

Figure 16. Select an existing term set from the term store for the new field.

Figure 17. Create a customized term set for the new field.