OneNote and Metadata in SharePoint–Part 1 of 5

The Scenario

As a SharePoint Consultant, I support several clients. I keep a list of my clients in my SharePoint MySite:



For each client, I store and manage related documents (like Statements of Works, Requirements documents, or important Emails) as well as OneNote notebooks for each client. Using SharePoint’s concept of Related Lists, each document can contain metadata about the client to which it applies:



And together, I can get a comprehensive view of each client’s important information:

 

The Problem

For many clients, I like to capture information, including handwritten notes from my tablet, in a OneNote notebook. OneNote is a great solution for capturing, categorizing, and sharing both structured and unstructured information. Add a tablet PC and a pen stylus to the mix, and you’ve got a very powerful & versatile tool. Storing my OneNote notebooks in SharePoint allows for easy syncing across devices and collaborators.

However, a OneNote notebook is unique from other types of documents we might store in SharePoint because it’s a Folder content type. This means by default it won’t let me easily associate a new metadata column to it (such as a “Client Name” lookup) like I could with a Document content type.

The Solution

One option is to change my OneNote notebook Folder content type so that it allows for additional metadata columns. This way, my OneNote notebook can be handled just like my other traditional Office documents.


The following describes the steps involved to create our Scenario above, as well as the solution to our pesky OneNote obstacle:

1. Create a List of Clients
2. Connect the client list to a Library of Related documents
3. Add a OneNote notebook to the document library
4. Change the OneNote notebook content type so that I can add a “Clients Name” Lookup column to it

Each link above will be enabled over the coming weeks as the respective blog posts are created. Stay Tuned!