How to Create a Document Set in SharePoint Online? A Detailed Guide

SharePoint enhances the workflow of organizations because of its powerful features. Among multiple features, one core feature of SharePoint is to create a document set. A document set is a kind of folder that allows users to manage the related documents as a single unit. It is very helpful for projects or tasks that require collaboration on numerous documents. In this article, we will walk through a detailed guide on how to create a document set in SharePoint Online.

What is a Document Set in SharePoint Online?

Before directly moving into the steps to create a Document set in SharePoint Online. Let’s take a look at the overview of the document set.

Document set is a content-type in SharePoint, that allows users to create and manage a folder structure. Unlike the regular folders, it enables users to:-

• Add metadata to a group of documents.
• Provides options to apply retention policies.
• Access to customize the welcome page.
• A Centralized location to store all related documents together.

Prerequisites Before Creating a Document Set in SharePoint Online

• Fulfill the below prerequisites to create a document set in SharePoint Online.
• Ensures you have the essential permissions to create a document set such as Full control.
• Make sure the Content-Type is enabled because you need to add them.
• The document set feature must be activated before going further.

How to Create a Document Set in SharePoint Online?

Creating a document set in SharePoint Online follows a four-step process. It consists of the below four steps:-

1. Enabling of Document Set Feature if not done previously.
2. Create a Content-Type along with the metadata and document templates.
3. Adding the document set to Document Library’s Content Type.
4. Create a New Document Set

Let’s start elaborating on each step in a detailed manner.

Step 1. Enable the “Document Set” Feature in the Site Collection

By default the document set is disabled. If you want to create a document set then first activate it.

1. Open the SharePoint Online site collection and move to Settings.
2. Navigate to Site settings and hit on Site Collection Features.
3. Now Activate the Document Sets feature.

Step 2. Prepare a Content Type with the Metadata Column and Document Template

After enabling the Document set, it’s time to create a content type. So, let’s start.

Create a new content type using Document Set as Parent

1. Move to the Site and then hit on the settings gear icon.
2. Now open Site information and click on View all settings.
3. Under web designer galleries, choose the Site content types option and press the Create link.
4. Start providing the details such as Title, Description, select Parent Content type from as Document Set Content Types, Parent Content Type as Document set.

Add Site Columns to Content Type

Click on Add a new site link to add the metadata. Add the name of the columns that you want to add to the site content type.

For instance, Name, Description, Project Details, Start date, and so on.

Upload Document Templates If needed

From the settings of content type, open Document set settings and start uploading the document templates. These can be Word, Excel, and other file formats. You can also add shared columns and welcome page columns if needed.

Step 3. Add Created Document Set Content Type in the Document Library

After finalizing the document set content type, the next step is to add it to the SharePoint Online document library: Shared Document library. So, let’s see how.

1. Open the document library where you want to add the document set functionality.
2. In the Library settings page, under the General Settings click on the Advanced settings.
3. Choose Yes to allow editing of content types and hit the OK button.
4. In the new window, choose Add from the existing site content types link.
5. Select the document set content type that you have created and hit on the Add button.

Finally, the document set functionality is added to the document library. Now, you can create the document set.

Step 4. Create a New Document Set

Now, let’s start creating the new document set in SharePoint Online.

1. Open the Document Library and hit on the New option.
2. Choose the option of the document set that we have created.
3. Now in the opened screen, enter the details in the document set and OK to create.

Now, the document set is created. You can add the additional functionalities as per the requirement.

But when you have created multiple document sets in SharePoint then it’s become difficult to manage the huge document libraries. So, it is good to copy document library from one site to another. To do so, you can use the Efficient SharePoint Migration Tool.

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This tool can transfer all the lists and libraries to the destination platform. As a result, you can easily manage large lists and libraries in SharePoint Online by transferring the less-required data to another site.

Final Words

How to create a document set in SharePoint Online? We have elaborated the complete process from beginning to end for efficiently creating a document set in SharePoint Online. You can also reduce the upcoming burden of managing huge data by using the above-mentioned tool.