There are many times when I start working with a client where they have used virtually no (or none at all) Content Types in SharePoint. As I discuss in my Content Types: Love Them or Lose It sessions at conferences (Coming up next: SPTechCon Austin! Use code ANDERSON to save an extra $200 off full registration.), Content Types are about much more than just metadata. A good information architecture in SharePoint uses Content Types liberally to improve search results, determine workflow behaviors, create content roll ups, and so much more.
If you have read any of our recent Sympraxis newsletters, you know that Sharegate is one of our absolutely favorite tools we use to work with SharePoint. We love it so much, we’re partners with them – you can even buy Sharegate through us! It a rare day that Sharegate isn’t open in my Windows 10 Task Bar so that I can do something with SharePoint. You may think of Sharegate as a migration tool, but we use it as our “everything tool” – it does far more than just migrate content.
I didn’t intend this to be an advertisement for Sharegate, but once I start talking about it…
Anyway, today I needed to change the Content Type on a LOT of events in a calendar. We often create a new Content Type based on Event which has a few extra column. Most often they are things like Show on Home Page? or Department Name, especially in an Intranet. In this case, that Content Type is called Department Event, and it lets us intelligently roll up those events on the Intranet home page.
Changing from one Content Type to another is something you’ll probably need to do anytime you want to “true up” your information architecture.
Maybe you have a Document Library with thousands of documents in it – all with the Content Type Document. That doesn’t do much for you!
Or maybe you created a Content Type called Contract, and realize that having several child Content Types like Real Estate Contract and Employee Contract will give you improved metadata and “findability”. If you have a lot of existing Contracts, then you’ve got a headache ahead of you – unless you use a tool like Sharegate.
The way we go about this is to use the Bulk Edit Metadata capability in Sharegate.
First we open the list or library where we want to change the Content Type. Choose the SharePoint Site Collection or tenant and connect…
Navigate to the the list or library where you want to make the changes and select a view which displays the Content Type. If you don’t have one, go set one up and come back to refresh the view (upper right below). Select the items you’d like to change…
Click on the Excel button in the ribbon…
…and choose Export Selection to Excel.
You can add additional mappings and changes here, but let’s just click on the Export now button…
You’ll need to provide a destination to save the file. Once the export is done, click on the Open File button to open the Excel file containing the exported data…
In Excel, you can change any of the metadata, but here we are focusing on the Content Type. Remember that spelling matters – you’ll get errors on import if you’ve spelled the Content Type name incorrectly.
Click on the Excel button back in Sharegate again and this time choose Import From Excel…
Select the Excel file wherever you saved it before. You have another chance to create some other mappings, etc., but let’s just click on the Import now button…
After a little work – it’ll take longer for more data – your Content Types will be changed, just as you set them in the Excel export. You didn’t “migrate” any content at all – you just changed things in place to be the way you want them!
This is one of those everyday uses for Sharegate that makes it one of our favorite tools.
by Marc D Anderson via Marc D Anderson's Blog
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