Document library provides a location on our SharePoint site where we can safely store our files, create, update, and share them with other users within our organization. In this tutorial, we’ll discuss the two ways on how to add a new document library in SharePoint.
A SharePoint document library helps us manage our files for our department or organization easily.
By default, setting up a SharePoint site provides us a document library called Documents. We can already use this as a storage of our files.
In this example, we have a folder hierarchy inside the Documents to organize our files. However, utilizing the metadata feature of SharePoint could help us organize our files more properly instead of using folder structures.Â
As you can see, we have folders and files for expenses, quotes, videos, important lengths, food, cars, and many more. Instead of using only one document library and group them by folders, the better way to do this is to create a document library for each one of them.
The metadata for these files are also different between them. For example, having metadata for the department is important for the Expenses files. As for quotes, the metadata that we might care about are the quoted amount, client name, job type, and so on. That’s another reason why having different document libraries for these different types of files is useful.
Let’s now learn how to create a new document library. There are two ways of creating a new document library.
Creating A Document Library In SharePoint Through Site Contents
The first method is by going to the Site contents. There is where we can see all the other document libraries that we have. Some of these document libraries like the Form Templates, Sites Assets, and Style Library are used for backend purposes. The Site Pages is called a Page library where all of our site’s pages are stored. For this example, we only have a single page which is the Home page.
To add a new document library, just click New then select App. We can also choose the Document Library option. However, there might be a time when Microsoft will have an update and the Document Library option might be removed. So, aside from having that option, we can also add a Document Library by adding them through App instead.
Creating A Document Library Through The Home Page
The second way is by going to the Home page. Click New and choose App.
It’ll then take us to this page called My Apps. This is where we can see our SharePoint apps.
We can also go to the SharePoint Store where we can look for all the available apps that we can use.
For this example, we want to look for built-in apps. We can find them by clicking the classic experience link.
It’ll then redirect us to this page. Again, we have different apps here that we can use on our SharePoint site. What we need is the Document Library app. So, let’s click on it.
After that, it’ll ask us for a document library name. For this example, we’ll name it as Expenses. Then click the Create button.
Our new document library named Expenses will then be added on the list within our Site contents. Let’s click on it.
We can now upload our expenses files to this document library.
Then, we’re now able to add our metadata for these files. For this example, we’ve added the column for the Department metadata.
***** Related Links *****
MS SharePoint Views | Creating And Saving
SharePoint Templates For Document Libraries
Metadata Filtering In SharePoint Files
Conclusion
To sum up, we’re able to create our own Document Library. Again, there are two ways to create a new document library. The first one is by going to the Home page, click New, then choose Document Library or App. The second one is going to the Site contents, click New, then choose Document Library or App.
You can then visit your new document libraries on the Site contents where all the document libraries and page libraries are listed.
All the best,
Henry
