Creating a Document Library

Quick reference

• 00:04 So now that we understand what a document library is, it's time for
• 00:07 us to create our own.
• 00:09 So maybe, aside from the standard document library that comes with every new
• 00:13 SharePoint site, you might want to have additional document libraries for
• 00:18 different types of documents.
• 00:21 And as you might expect,
• 00:22 there are a number of different templates that you can use for document libraries.
• 00:26 For example,
• 00:27 maybe you want to create a document library that just contains images.
• 00:31 And you'll see in a moment,
• 00:33 there is a very specific picture library template specifically for
• 00:37 storing image files as supposed to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, things like that.
• 00:42 And the difference is, it has relevant column headings for pictures.
• 00:46 Now the process of creating new document libraries is very
• 00:50 similar to that of lists.
• 00:52 But remember, whether you're using the modern or
• 00:54 the classic experience is going to have an effect.
• 00:57 So if we jump back to home, if you're using the modern experience,
• 01:02 you can just click this new drop down and
• 01:04 you can select document library to add a standard document library, or
• 01:09 you can go down and add an app and select a different document library template.
• 01:14 If you're using the modern experience and you don't have this menu, you'll need to
• 01:19 jump up to the cog in the top right-hand corner and go to add an app from here.
• 01:24 So let's jump into add an app, and again, we are back at our favorite screen.
• 01:29 This contains all of our library and list templates.
• 01:33 And if we scroll through and take a look,
• 01:35 you can see that we do have a number of different ones that we could use.
• 01:37 So we have our standard document library template, just here.
• 01:41 That's the one that's currently in use in that default document library.
• 01:45 But I also have a form library, a Wiki page library, and
• 01:49 a picture library specifically for pictures.
• 01:53 And if we scroll down to the bottom, there is another page.
• 01:55 So if I click on next, I get a few more different libraries.
• 01:59 So go in and select the one that's going to be most appropriate to you.
• 02:03 And remember, if you can't find one that's exactly what you want, then we can create
• 02:07 our own custom libraries as well, which I'm going to show you a bit later on.
• 02:11 For now, we're just going to add a standard document library.
• 02:14 So let's click on this first tile, just here.
• 02:17 And we need to give our library a name.
• 02:20 So I'm just going to create a library that's going to house all of the training
• 02:24 documents.
• 02:26 Again, no space, click on create, it jumps me to that site contents page,
• 02:32 and if I scroll down, there is my training documents library.
• 02:37 Now before we go any further,
• 02:39 I am going to add this to my quick launch navigation menu.
• 02:42 So three dots, down to settings, into list, name, description, and navigation.
• 02:50 I'm going to add a space and I'm going to say, yes,
• 02:53 I want to display it on the quick launch, and click on save.
• 02:59 Now I'm doing this just simply because it's going to make it a lot easier for
• 03:02 me to quickly access this document library.
• 03:04 And what I'm actually going to do is I'm going to edit this quick launch menu
• 03:08 again, and I'm going to move this all the way up to the top so
• 03:11 it sits underneath documents.
• 03:14 Now, this is a bit of a slow process, we can only move up one at a time.
• 03:17 So we're just going to say, move up, to get it into the correct spot.
• 03:21 There's something else I could do here is I could make this a sub link,
• 03:25 so that it kind of sits as a sub folder underneath documents.
• 03:31 Now I'm going to click on save.
• 03:32 And immediately, I've added a little bit of structure into that navigation menu.
• 03:37 Let's click back on our new library.
• 03:40 You can see here, we have those standard column headings, name, modified, and
• 03:45 modified by.
• 03:45 I could of course go in and start adding more columns.
• 03:49 Now what I could also do here is I could toggle on additional columns.
• 03:53 And for that, I need to edit the current view.
• 03:59 Because something else I want to display in this document library is I want to be
• 04:02 able to see the file size.
• 04:04 So I'm going to make sure that I have the file size column selected.
• 04:09 Let's click on OK to add that column in.
• 04:13 So don't forget that you can modify the view as well.
• 04:16 So let's add a quick document to this library.
• 04:19 I'm going to jump up to the new button and I'm going to create one on the fly.
• 04:23 So let's do another Word document.
• 04:25 Remember, it opens in Word online and I'm quickly going to add in some text using
• 04:31 a little trainer trick here to get some random text quickly into a document.
• 04:36 And this is just kind of junk text, so that we have something in there.
• 04:41 I'm going to give my document a name.
• 04:43 So let's click up here where it says, document, and I'm going to change
• 04:47 the file name to something a bit more meaningful than document.
• 04:51 So let's just say this is, budget requirements, something like that.
• 04:55 Click away, wait until it says saved, and
• 04:58 then I know I can safely close this document down.
• 05:01 And after a couple of seconds, that name will update.
• 05:04 So very quickly, I've been able to add in a document to my library.
• 05:09 And as I said, there are lots of different types of documents that we can create on
• 05:13 the fly from within SharePoint.
• 05:15 In the next lesson, we're going to take a look at how we can upload documents
• 05:20 into our document libraries.

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