Categorization with Multiple SharePoint Libraries

A SharePoint Online tutorial by Peter Kalmström

When you add more and more documents and list items to SharePoint it becomes increasingly important to have them categorized in a good way, so that users quickly can find the data they need.

In a few articles we will have a look on how best categorize files and list items in SharePoint, and in the demo below Peter Kalmström, CEO and Systems Designer of kalmstrom.com Business Solutions, shows how to categorize files by creating multiple document libraries.

Peter recommends using separate document libraries instead of adding new folders to the default library, 'Documents'.

SharePoint library advantages

This works better if you use multiple libraries instead of one library with folders:

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Scaling. A SharePoint document library should not contain more than 5000 items, so if you put all your documents in one library you will sooner or later have to move files to new libraries anyway.

Create new SharePoint library

Click on the settings gear and select 'Add an app'.
Click on the Document Library icon.
Give the new library a name that tells what kind of files it contains and click on Create.

This is an easy process, but if you need to create many libraries it will still be a tedious process. In a later article we will give a PowerShell script that helps you create the libraries more quickly.