Managing Document Templates in SharePoint Online
Templates are a great tool to help users quickly create documents, however, they aren't always used effectively in SharePoint. They can be hard to maintain and manage over time.
Where do you save templates in SharePoint to make sure they are easy to access? Centralizing them in a document library doesn't always work and can cause additional overhead for IT or other users who need to apply the updates. Each team probably wants easy access to their templates, so do you store templates in a library in each Team site?
Because of these issues I often see users who just open the last document created and perform a “Save as…” because it’s easier than finding the template, opening it, and then saving a file to the correct location. I've also opened a lot of templates to see the last person who used it forgot to do a “Save as,” and instead edited the whole file with their updates.
These methods are not ideal for managing document templates long-term. They can lead to errors when old content is not properly removed (such as the client or customer’s name from the old document). It can also cause problems when applying records management to documents, and metadata can be inaccurate when saving an old document as your new document. Finally, users editing the template when they don't mean to is a time waste, and if the next user isn't comfortable with version history it can be difficult to restore.
So, what’s a better way?
I'll propose two useful solutions to managing document templates effectively. The first is a central repository for organization-wide templates and the second is location specific template management.
Organization-Wide Templates
Teams within a department often adapt document templates or create their own, which can cause additional work and inconsistency in the organization. If your branding team has spent a lot of time to make beautiful PowerPoint templates, Word templates, or perhaps you have timesheets that need to be consistent for all employees, then you want to make sure users are accessing the most recent and up-to-date templates easily.
Enter organizational asset libraries. An organizational asset library is a centralized repository for your Office-based templates. Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents can be stored centrally and managed by the correct team within the organization. End-users will then be able to access these templates directly in their Office products. This ensures that all users are using the current and most up-to-date templates. They also don't have to navigate around to find these templates. They can be organized and stored centrally, and all become accessible directly in the Office product. Simple, effective, and easy to find.
Pros:
Manage organization-wide templates in one central location
Accessible directly through Office products
Always accessing the most up-to-date template
Cons:
Organizational assets can only be stored in one (1) SharePoint site*
More difficult to provide access for different teams to manage their templates – risk of mistakes if too many users have edit access
*Only 1 site can be designated to host organizational asset libraries, and files must be saved in template format to appear here. Regular .docx files for instance, won't appear in the Office products. Rather, a template owner needs to create a Word .dotx file.
Centralized templates from SharePoint’s organizational assets library as seen in PowerPoint
Organizational templates can be managed centrally and provided to all users easily – this ensures users are always using the most current and up-to-date template and helps align your whole organization around your company’s templates. However, not all templates are needed by the entire organization and centralizing them may cause additional problems around managing the templates and confuse end-users as to when or why to use templates that don’t belong or pertain to them.
Library based templates
The second solution is on the library level. Library specific templates can be used instead as a team specific solution. Teams manage their own template(s) directly on the library that requires the use of the template(s). This decentralized method proves most effective for team specific templates within a well-organized team site structure.
Saving a template at a library level involves uploading templates directly to a document library’s "New" menu. This is an effective way to manage and maintain team and library specific templates. It should be used when a team owns, manages, and are the users of their own templates. This will allow a user to select the template directly from the “New” button in the menu and create a brand-new file directly in the library based off the template. Very simple and effective.
Add a template directly to a SharePoint Document Library's 'New' menu
The template can be updated from this menu when it needs changing. This ensures changes are intentional and reduces the risk of someone updating the template accidentally.
Edit the template from the SharePoint library 'New' menu
Pros:
Access templates in the library where they are needed
Updates are made directly to the template without worrying about accidental updates
Teams self-manage templates, with no central location or requirement from IT to help update your templates
Cons:
Not accessible through the Office products directly like organization-wide templates are
Cannot be accessed by other users in the organization who do not have access to the library
Must be updated and maintained in multiple locations if the template is needed in more than one library
For this solution to be effective it requires well-organized content, sites, and document libraries. It proves ineffective if you need to use the same template in multiple document libraries, as you need to update the template in all locations when a change is required. It is also a worse option if more than one team needs access to the template in their own site. In these cases, an organizational asset library is better to manage the template centrally.
Conclusion
There are many ways to store and organize templates – some more effective than others. We recommend using a combination of organizational asset libraries and managing templates directly at a library level as these methods are most effective and efficient.
Creating consistency and ensuring the most recent and up-to-date templates are used can reduce rework, confusion, and inconsistency amongst your documents. These two methods of template management help your organization accomplish these goals.
Making document templates easily accessible is just one part of a great Microsoft 365 and SharePoint experience. If you’re looking for SharePoint consulting or guidance for your organization, reach out and we’d be happy to talk.
