Create or customize a content type

Content types enable site users to quickly create specialized kinds of content by using the New Item or New Document command in a list or library. Content types provide site owners a way to make sure that that content is consistent across sites. Site owners can pre-configure specific details about the content when they set up content types for a site, list, or library. To learn general information about the benefits of content types, seeIntroduction to content types and content type publishing.

IMPORTANT    To create site content types for a site, you must have Full Control for that site. To create site content types for the top-level site in a site collection, you must be a site collection administrator.

To create a site content type, follow these steps:

1. Go to the site for which you want to create a site content type.
2. Select the Options button and then select Site Settings.
3. Under Web Designer Galleries, choose Site content types.
   The Gallery shows all the existing site content types, grouped in categories. The one that you choose becomes the parent of your new content type. The new content type inherits the attributes of its parent.

   TIP    Note the name of the parent group, you will need it later.

4. Click Create to open the New Site Content Type page.

5. In the Name and Description section, type a name and a description for the new site content type.
6. In the Select parent content type from list, select the name of the group that the parent content type belongs to.
7. In the Parent Content Type list, select the name of the parent content type on which you want your own content type to be based.
8. In the Group section, choose whether to store this new site content type inside an existing group or a new group.
9. Click OK.

The Site Content Type Information page for your new content type appears. This page contains links to other pages where you can further customize the new site content type.

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In this article

• Rename a content type
• Associate a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint template with a content type
• Configure a content type to always display the Document Information Panel

Rename a content type

You can rename a site content type by changing its name in the gallery. To rename a site content type, follow these steps.

1. Go to the home page of the site that contains the content type that you want to rename.
2. Select the Options button, and then choose Site Settings.
3. In the Web Designer Galleries group, select Site Content Types.
4. On the Site Contents Types page, click the name of the content type that you want to change.
5. On the Site Content Type Information page, under Settings, click 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 you finish, click OK.

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Associate a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint template with a content type

To make sure that documents are consistent, you can associate a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint template with a 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 clicking 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 content type, follow these steps.

1. Go to the site for which you want to change a site content type.
2. Select the Options button and then select Site Settings.
3. Under Web Designer Galleries, choose Site content types.
4. Click the name of the content type that you want to change by associating a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint template.

NOTE   If names of the content types are not hyperlinks, it means that this site inherits its site content types from another site. To change the content type, you must move to that site.

5. Under Settings, click Advanced settings.
6. Enter the location of the template. If the template is stored on your site, click Enter the URL of an existing document template, and then type the URL for the template that you want to use.If the document template is stored on your local computer, click Upload a new document template, and then click Browse. In theChoose File dialog box, locate the file that you want to use, select it, and then click Open.
7. In the Update Sites and Lists section, under Update all content types inheriting from this type?, click Yes if you want to update all content types that inherit from this content type with the document template.
8. Click OK.

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Configure a content type to always display the Document Information Panel

The Document Information Panel is available for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in Microsoft Office 2010 and in later versions. The Document Information Panel displays a form on documents of these types, and users can view or change metadata information in the panel. If the document is saved to SharePoint, they save the information directly from the Office program they use to edit the document.

For example, suppose that you have a Sales Proposal content type that has a column for the company that the proposal addresses. When you display the Document Information Panel, users can enter the name of the company directly from the document while they edit it. If the company name has already been entered, the use can view the information or update it. When the document is saved to the server, this property is automatically updated in the Company column for the library.

To configure settings for the Document Information Panel for a content type, follow these steps.

1. Go to the site for which you want to change a site content type.
2. Select the Options button and then select Site Settings.
3. Under Web Designer Galleries, choose Site content types.
4. Click the name of the site content type that you want to change.

NOTE   If names of the content type that appear are not hyperlinks, then it means that this site inherits its site content types from another site. The site content type must be updated on that site.

5. Under Settings, click 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 properties (columns) that were defined for the content type, clickUse the default template for Microsoft Office applications.
   • To use an existing custom template, click Use existing custom template (URL, UNC, or URN), and then type the path of the location of the template.
   • To upload an existing custom template (XSN), click Upload an existing custom template (XSN) to use, and then click Browse to locate the template that you want to use.
   • To create a custom panel in InfoPath, click 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 this Document Information Panel to display automatically when documents of this content type are first opened or saved.
8. Click OK.