Company Documents
The system for storing, sharing, and indexing company documents from a single point on the SharePoint intranet.
What is Company Documents
Company Documents is a component that presents documents in a unified space within the intranet, bringing together files from different SharePoint collections, even if managed by different departments. It integrates with Microsoft 365 taxonomies and term sets, allowing users to categorize content through tags and save time in searches. Below is a list of the main features of this web part:
Tags and categories: editor users can customize categories and tags to classify company documents and easily retrieve procedures belonging to a specific team, department, event, or project.
Favorites: every user can create their own Favorites area to keep useful documents always at hand.
Latest Files: you can highlight the latest documents published on the intranet to keep the company audience updated.
Content indexing: the Company Documents component simplifies document access by utilizing SharePoint's capabilities to analyze and index content for search. Simply type a term in Advanced Search to retrieve files containing the searched word in the title or body of the text (it also works with PDFs).
In addition to that, Company Documents integrates with SharePoint, providing users with essential features for effective document management and retrieval. These include:
Versioning for tracking and recovering changes;
Real-time sharing;
Access control;
Monitoring of approval workflows.
Targeted notifications whenever a public file is modified;
Indexing to make document content searchable.
Explore the advantages of Intranet.ai Company Documents by clicking here to learn more.
Add the Company Documents web part to a SharePoint page
If your page is not already in edit mode, click on Edit at the top right of the page.
Click on it and, in the web part search box, enter Documents to quickly find and select the Company Documents web part, which is named IAI-Documents.
Configuration
General Settings
In this section, you need to:
indicate the document libraries from which the web part will retrieve documents;
configure filters, which allow you to filter documents by category;
set other general options.
Enter the URL of the document library in which your documents are collected. As explained, this component can bring together files from different document libraries; this means that here you can write different URLs, separated by a comma (please, do not use spaces).
It is recommended to create a documents subsite to collect document libraries. See the section titled Create a documents subsite to learn how to do so.
Here you need to insert the URL of the entire document library; it is not possible to insert the URL of a subfolder within it. If you want to show only specific documents within the library, you can use metadata and take advantage of the pre-filter option (see "Document settings").
Enter the URL of the favorite documents list. This feature allows users to mark files as favorites and create an area of favorite files.
Every time you add the Company Documents web part to a page, you should create a new list of favorite documents that will be associated to that documentary area. See the section titled Create a new list of favorite documents to learn how to do so.
Enter the taxonomy's unique id. You need to fill in this field only if your tenant has more than one Term store. To access the Term store, which is a section of the Administration Area of the site, you need to take the following steps:
Click on the Settings icon at the top right of the page, then click on Site information.
Click on View all site settings.
Under Site Administration, click on Term store management.
You will land on the Term store, which is the area where you can create term sets and terms, i.e. tags to categorize your content. Here you can find the unique identifier of the taxonomy, which is a code composed of numbers, letters and hyphens.
After having assigned tags to documents, you need to configure filters. This feature allows you to filter documents by specific tags; when you do so, the web part displays only documents that belong to the selected category or categories.
For example, if your document library contains files written in different languages, you may want to filter documents by language, e.g. English, French, Italian and so on.
Please refer to our guide "Creation of tag systems for news and documents" to learn how to create term sets in the Term store, add columns of the managed property type to a document library, and assign tags to documents.
To open the filter configurator, click on Configure filters. The following panel will appear:
Choose filter: write owstaxId followed by the name of the column used to assign tags to documents. Please, do not use spaces.
For example: owstaxIdLingua
Enter the unique id of the managed property term set: write the unique identifier of the term set. To find this code, take the steps described above to access the Term store. In the Term store, click on Global term groups: you will see all the term groups that have been created. Then, click on the term group that contains the term set you need, and finally select the term set: on the right of the page, you will see the unique identifier of the term set. Copy this code and paste it into the required field of the Collection data panel header.
Enter custom filter name: write the name of the filter, which will be displayed on the right side of the application, under the Favorites filter.
For example: Language
Show filter?: flag this box if you want the filter to be displayed.
Show tag?: flag this box if you want the tag to be displayed next to the file name.
Indicate whether to show the search field: flag this box if you want to show a search bar in the drop-down menu of the filter. This search bar allows you to search for tags, so it is particularly useful if you have a significant number of tags, as it allows you to find them more quickly.
Stop reordering: by default, the tags in the filter drop-down menu are ordered alphabetically. If you flag this box, the tags will keep the same order they have in the term set.
Indicate whether the filter is open by default: here you can choose if the drop-down menu of the filter will be open or close by default. Flag this box if you want it to be open by default.
In next field of the General Settings, you need to insert the internal name of the language managed property if it has been manually edited. If you leave this field blank, the default internal name will be used: owstaxIdIAILanguage.
Then, you can choose the number of documents to load.
You can also decide whether to display the search bar at the top or on the side. If you choose to display it on the side, all filters will be hidden. This feature allows for a cleaner layout if the web part is used in a narrow section:
Then, you can customize the text of the Load more button. If you leave this field blank, the default text ("Load more") will be displayed.
You can also decide whether the Load more button should simply load more documents or take you to a different page. If you choose the latter option, two additional fields will be activated: use them to enter the page URL and decide whether to open the link on a new page or the current page.
Finally, you can choose audiences by selecting one or more AD groups from a drop-down menu.
Document Settings
If you fill in this section, the web part will pre-filter results and show only a part of the document library; spefically, it will show only documents associated with the selected tags.
If you're not in edit mode already, click Edit at the top right of the page.
In the first field, you need to write owstaxId followed by the name of the column used to assign tags to documents. Please, do not use spaces.
For example: owstaxIdLingua
Enter the unique identifier of the term set. To find this code, follow the steps described in the sub-section titled General Settings.
Select the tags by which to pre-filter documents. The web part will display only the results that are associated with those tags.
For example: "English", "French". In this case, the web part will display only documents which have been assigned these tags, that is to say, documents written in English and French.
Select whether to filter by Id (which is the default option) or Value. Let us assume that you want to show only documents with the "English" tag. If you leave the default option enabled, the web part will read only the tags included in the term set you have specified. If you enable Value, the web part will read all the tags named "English", even those that belong to other term sets.
Enter the path where acknowledgement is located. This field is to be filled in only if the Acknowledgement system has been activated. In such a case, here you need to enter the URL of the page where the Acknowledgement web part is configured. This way, all the documents will be opened through the "Acknowledgement" page, and users will have the possibility to confirm that they have read the files. If this field is left blank, the documents will be opened in a standard way. The following screenshots provide examples of these two possibilities:
Open or download the document?. You can choose whether the document will be opened in Word Online or downloaded when the user clicks on it. The former option is the default one.
Visibility Settings
In this section, you can decide to show or hide specific information about your documents.
If you're not in edit mode already, click Edit at the top right of the page.
First, you can decide to show or hide the author of the document. If you choose the former option, the author's name will be displayed under the title of the document. By using the drop-down menu below, you can choose to show the name of the actual author (select Author) or the name of the last user who modified the document (select Modified by).
Second, you can decide to show or hide the date when the document was published. If you choose the former option, the date will be displayed under the title of the document.
Then, you can choose to show or hide the relative path and the absolute path of the document. If you decide to show this information, it will appear under the author and the date.
The next visibily option allows you to include or exclude the file extension from the title of the document.
Finally, you can decide to show or hide a download icon which you can click to download the document.
Order Settings
In this section, you can set the display order of your documents.
If you're not in edit mode already, click Edit at the top right of the page.
First, you can choose to sort documents by modification date, creation date, filename or title. Select your preferred option from the drop-down menu.
Second, you can decide to order documents from the most recent or from the least recent.
As regards the last option, it should be specified that the web part includes a search bar which allows you to quickly find content. if you enter a word in the search bar, the web part will show only documents that contain the searched word in the title and in the body of the text. If you enable the last option of the Order Settings, the documents that contain the searched word in the title will be shown first.
Here is an example of what Company Documents looks like once the configuration is complete:
The web part is composed of the following elements:
A list of documents, which includes an icon and the information you have chosen to show (e.g. author, date, file extension). As can be seen in the screenshot above, each file type is identified by a specific icon.
A star icon which allows you to mark documents as favorites. Just click on the icon to add an item to your list of favorite documents.
A download icon, if you have chosen to show it. By clicking on this symbol, you can download a document.
A search bar which allows you find documents more quickly. You just need to type a word in the search bar to retrieve files containing the searched word in the title or in the body of the text.
The filters section, which consists of drop-down menus. The first one is the Favorites filter, which allows you to filter results to view only the resources you marked as favorites. The other filters allow you to retrieve documents that belong to specific categories.
The Company Documents web part does not read folders. This means that if the document library contains folders, the component will display all the files in the form of a list, without reproducing their organization into folders. However, if you wish to display folders in your documentary area, you can use the Company Documents with Folders web part, which is explained in a dedicated guide.
Create a documents subsite
A subsite is a site within a parent site that helps you organize and manage content. In particular, it is recommended to create a subsite to collect and manage document libraries. Here is how to do so:
Click on the Settings icon at the top right of the page, then click on Site contents.
Click on New > Subsite.
You will land on an interface where information on the subsite is required. The first fields to fill in are Title, Description and URL name.
Enter the title, i.e. the name of the site.
For example: documents
If you want, you can also write a description, but this is not mandatory.
Complete the URL name by entering the title you chose.
For example: https://intranetai.sharepoint.com/sites/my-hub/documents
Keep the default settings, except for the second to last choice: the default option is Yes, change it to No, so that the site will not be displayed on the top link bar of the parent site.
Finally, click on Create.
To create a new document library in your subsite, follow these steps:
Click on New > Document library.
Click on Blank library. The following pop-up will appear:
Enter the name of the document library. Please, avoid spaces; use capital letters instead, so that the library URL will be cleaner.
For example: GraphicMaterials, Guidelines, Procedures
If you want, you can also enter a description, but this is not mandatory.
Leave the Show in site navigation box flagged.
Click on Create.
Now, you just need to click on Upload to add files to the document library. When configuring Company Documents, you will need to copy and paste the URL of this document library into the related field in the General Settings, as explained in the sub-section titled General Settings.
Create a new list of favorite documents
As mentioned above, every time you add Company Documents to a SharePoint page, you should create a new list of favorite documents, which will allow users to build their own Favorites area.
For example, if you use the web part to collect graphic materials in a unified space, you should create a list specifically for graphic materials.
The list of favorite documents should be created in the parent site, not in subsites, otherwise the web part will not work.
To add a new list, take the following steps:
Click on the Settings icon at the top right of the page, then click on Site contents.
Click on New > List.
As you want to create a list from an existing list, click on From existing list. You will see all the lists available on the site; select Documenti Preferiti IAI.
Click on Next. A pop-up will appear; complete it as follows:
Give a name to the list. The name should tell you what the list is about. Please, avoid spaces; use capital letters and hyphens instead, so that the list URL will be cleaner.
For example: IAIFavouriteDocuments-GraphicMaterials
It is recommended to always name a list of favorite documents as "IAIFavouriteDocuments" followed by the name of the document library. This way, you will organize your lists of favorite documents in an orderly manner and you will easily find them. In addition, this is important in view of future updates of the web part.
If you want, you can enter a description, but this is not mandatory.
Remove the flag from the Show in site navigation box, so that the list will not appear in the site navigation.
Click on Create.
When configuring Company Documents, you will need to copy and paste the URL of this list into the related field in the General Settings, as explained in the sub-section titled General Settings.
Configure a list of favorite documents
Now that you have created a list of favorite documents, you need to configure it so that users can interact with the list. To learn how to configure this list, read the dedicated guide. In particular, please refer to the First type of configuration section.
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