SharePoint document sets: when and why to use them
Sometimes SharePoint document sets feel like the overlooked child in a big family. They’re a useful SharePoint feature that don’t always get their time in the sun due to folders being more readily accessible and ‘in your face’.
Document sets are more useful and more scalable than folders. They’re helpful in many scenarios when you would create folders to group content. Let’s see how to get the most value and benefit from document sets.
When to use document sets
Essentially anytime that you think you might need a folder – use a document set! Document sets are similar to folders, but come with a few more ‘superpowers.’
Note: There might be situations where you use folders, especially when content needs to be sorted into a hierarchy or when tagging isn’t consistent. However, for many situations document sets will give you a better long-term solution.
Let’s take a common scenario: contracts. Typically, you have a group of documents related to one contract – the contract file that’s editable, the signed PDF version, and supporting documents for legal requirements or insurance. Each individual “contract” is really a few documents bundled together.
Putting the group of related documents into a document set lets you set metadata at the document set level for better filtering, views and searching. This one of the superpowers of document sets over folders - folders cannot take on metadata!
Here’s an example of using document sets for contracts that keep all the related documents in the same place. The metadata includes standard things such as vendor name, department owner, location, dates, as well as progress bars for quick checks on status:
An example of contract document sets with complex metadata
It’s more useful to manage contracts this way rather than folders.
You can tag the vendor, the status of the contract and the due date instead of jamming it all into a folder title. Then you can create views that filter on status or sort by date, set reminders to take action by a certain date, track progress or trigger workflows.
We almost always recommend using a document set whenever you need a folder. Your solution will be more usable and scalable in the future.
Here are few more scenario ideas:
A sales team can use document sets to store all the documents related to a sale, such as the proposal, contract, a bill of materials, engineering specs, and so on.
A HR department can use document sets for each employee file to bundle performance reviews, the employee contract, and other HR or payroll documents.
A board of directors can use document sets to store the files needed for each meeting including the agenda, the final minutes, and any pre-read material.
A freedom of information (FOI) solution can use document sets to organize and group the files for each request.
A manufacturing company can use document sets to store a standard set of documents related to design, testing, and fabrication for each product or version it manufactures.
An insurance firm might use document sets to store several documents related to each claim that is filed, such as forms, receipts, photos, and reports.
A project team might use document sets to manage documents in each project stage or stream of work to bundle Word documents, OneNote notebooks, PowerPoint presentations, Visio diagrams, and Excel workbooks in streams.
Tip: Use a document set whenever you need a folder. Your solution will be more usable and scalable in the future.
Keep in mind that a document set title can contain info that you might use a metadata column for. For example, handy additions to the title might be invoice number, vendor name for a contract, case study name, project name, or meeting date. In this case, you then don’t need to create a dedicated metadata field and can use the document set title instead. When designing the document set metadata, think about how you might need the field for future search and filtering needs.
Benefits of document sets
As mentioned, document sets allow you to group related documents together and manage them as a single entity in a SharePoint library.
The key benefit is metadata inheritance.
When you setup a new document set, you choose what metadata is automatically passed down to the documents within the set. This is the superpower – it's free, automated metadata with no code.
See how the metadata auto-magically appears when you add a new file to the document set:
Metadata is automatically applied to files uploaded to a document set
More benefits of document sets include:
Apply features to a set of documents: Document sets enable you to apply metadata, workflows, and permissions to the entire set of documents, rather than to each individual document.
Use views and filters: Because the document set has metadata, you can configure views or filters at this top-level. If you group content in folders, you don’t get this capability.
Overall, document sets improve productivity because complex metadata is automatically applied to documents and users can find and organize documents more easily.
What’s the difference between a document set and a content type?
A document set is a content type. Fundamentally, content types have a set of metadata, they have inheritance, and they can be configured to show up with an associated template under the New button in SharePoint and Teams:
Example of content types for templates and a document set in the new menu.
Image source: Microsoft
A content type is a reusable collection of settings and fields that can be applied to different types of items or documents in SharePoint. A document set is a special type of content type that allows you to group related documents together and manage them as a single entity.
The key difference is that you can put files inside of a document set and users can use the drag-and-drop capability just like folders.
A couple of caveats…
Document sets are mostly modern
Document sets work great in SharePoint Online, with one caveat. Document sets will occasionally drop you into a Classic look and feel before returning to Modern. This primarily occurs for users when they create a new document set. In our experience though, your users will barely even notice this. We also hope the SharePoint development team has the updates to Modern in their backlog! 😊
Don’t use folders and document sets in the same library
We don’t recommend using both folders and document sets in the same document library because of the possible confusion. People will also naturally default to the more ‘familiar’ option (folders) if presented with the choice and may do confusing things such as putting folders inside of document sets. You can turn off the ability to create folders as part of site creation or in the document library settings.
The feature is not on by default
While document sets are so handy, they aren’t turned on by default on document libraries! Use a site template process or see how to turn the feature on at the site collection level.
Learn more
This excellent article explains how to setup and enable modern document sets
This article has more detail on converting business processes to document sets
Reach out for advice on designing your solution and implementing document sets. We use them on almost every project!
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