Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2010 Bible

Chapter 18. Implementing Content Types

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Defining content types

• Creating custom content types and site columns

• Content types and workflows

Document management really hit the scene in the early 1990s and began to have a big impact in the legal industry and other heavily regulated environments. As more and more digital content was created, organizations strained to manage the growing volume of content; therefore, document management systems and other electronic content management applications have gained popularity.

The best document and content management systems have evolved to map templates and other system behaviors to types of content. The cores of most systems have the ability to tag content with metadata so that management "actions" can take place on or in relation to the content. In some cases it is a workflow that requires approval; in other cases the content needs to be moved into long-term storage.

This chapter explores how content types and site columns in SharePoint Server 2010 provide a centralized structure for managing content and the related metadata. We answer the question, "What are content types?" and review the types of workflows and content types that are available out of the box. We also explore the ability to create custom Content Types to help you solve the unique business problems you have in your organization.

Defining Content Types

Content types are a way to manage the metadata and behaviors of a document, list item, or folder in a centralized, reusable ...