Create or customize a site content type

1. Go to the home page of the site that contains the content type that you want to rename.

2. Select Settings , and then select Site Settings.

3. In the Web Designer Galleries group, select Site Content Types.

4. On the Site Contents Types page, select the name of the content type that you want to change.

5. On the Site Content Type Information page, under Settings, select Name, description, and group.

6. In the Name text box of the Name and description section, change the name of the content type.

7. When done, select OK.

To make sure that documents have consistent content across a site and its subsites, you can associate a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint template with a site content type.

For example, you might want employees to use a standard Excel template when they create a weekly timesheet. If you associate the template with a Timesheet content type, every time someone uses the Timesheet content type, the correct template is automatically loaded in the worksheet.

You can make it even easier for users by adding the Timesheet content type to a library. Then, users can open the correct timesheet just by selecting Timesheet on the New Documents menu. To learn how to do this, see Add a content type to a list or library.

To associate a template with a site content type, follow these steps.

1. Go to the site for which you want to associate a template with a site content type.

2. Select the Settings button , and then select Site Settings.

3. Under Web Designer Galleries, select Site content types.

4. Select the name of the content type that you want to change by associating a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint template.

5. Under Settings, select Advanced settings.

6. Enter the location of the template:

   • If the template is stored on your site, select Enter the URL of an existing document template, and then enter the URL for the template that you want to use.

   • If the document template is stored on your local computer, select Upload a new document template, and then select Browse. In the Choose File dialog, locate the file that you want to use, select it, and then select Open.

     

7. Under Update all content types inheriting from this type?, select Yes if you want to update all content types that inherit from this content type with the document template.

8. Select OK.

The columns for a content type represent metadata. To add a metadata element, add a new column.

For example, your organization might want to track specific metadata for purchase orders, such as account number, project number, and project manager. If you add columns for this information to the purchase order content type, SharePoint prompts users to provide the information when they save their work. In addition, if you add the content type to a list or library, you can define a view to display the columns.

1. Go to the site for which you want to add a column to a site content type.

2. Select Settings , and then select Site Settings.

3. Under Web Designer Galleries, select Site content types.

4. Select the name of the content type to which you want to add a column.

5. Under Columns, select Add from existing site columns.

6. In the Select Columns section, under Select columns from, choose the parent group for the column.

7. Under Available columns, select the name of the column that you want, and then select Add.

8. In the Update List and Site Content Types section, decide whether you want to update all content types that inherit from this site content type by selecting Yes or No.

The Document Information Panel is available for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in Microsoft Office 2010 and later. The Document Information Panel displays an InfoPath form on these documents where you can enter metadata information in the panel.

For example, suppose that you want to make sure that salespeople provide the company name and phone number for every sales proposal. You can create a Proposal content type, and include company name and phone number in the Document Information Panel. When they open a Proposal document, users enter or update the required name and phone number. When they save the document, SharePoint automatically updates the metadata stored as columns in the document library.

To learn more about content types and metadata, see Add metadata columns to a content type.

To set up a Document Information Panel for a document content type, follow these steps.

1. Go to the site for which you want to change a site content type.

2. Select Settings  , and then select Site Settings.

3. Under Web Designer Galleries, select Site content types.

4. Choose the name of the site content type that you want to change.

   Note: If names of the content types that appear are not hyperlinks, then this site inherits its site content types from another (parent) site. To update the site content type, go to the parent site.

5. Under Settings, select Document Information Panel settings.

6. In the Document Information Panel Template section, do one of the following:

   • To use a default template that displays the metadata (columns) that you defined for the content type, select Use the default template for Microsoft Office applications.

   • To use an existing custom template, select Use existing custom template (URL, UNC, or URN), and then enter the path of the location of the template.

   • To upload an existing custom template (XSN), select Upload an existing custom template (XSN) to use, and to locate the template that you want to use, select Browse.

   • To create a custom panel in InfoPath, select Create a new custom template.

     Note: If you select this option, InfoPath starts and displays the default template which you can customize to create a custom panel.

7. In the Show Always section, specify whether you want documents of this content type to show the information panel automatically.

8. Select OK.

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