Company Documents
The system for storing, sharing, and indexing company documents from a single point on the SharePoint intranet.
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The system for storing, sharing, and indexing company documents from a single point on the SharePoint intranet.
Last updated
Was this helpful?
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 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.
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.
The layout settings allows you to customize the appearance of your application by adjusting various layout settings.
By opening this first configuration, you will see the following options:
Do you want to hide the background? You can choose to hide or display the webpart background. The default setting is “No”. This means that, by default, the webpart is characterized by a white background. If you enable this option, the white card background will be completely removed, allowing the content appear directly on the page. As a result, the webpart will be transparent, showing either the selected background image or the chosen SharePoint page color.
Do you want to hide the background shadow? You can choose whether to show or hide the background shadow. The default setting is “No”. This means that, by default, the webpart is characterized by a subtle depth effect that can make the webpart stand out more against the rest of the page. If you enable this option, the shadow behind the background will be removed, giving the web part a flatter, cleaner look without any depth.
Select the type of background shadow If you decide to set the background shadow, a further configuration will appear and you can select the style from High Contrast, Light, or Dark options.
If you select High contrast, this option creates a strong, bold shadow effect that provides a high level of contrast between the background and the content.
By choosing the Light background shadow, it will create a soft and subtle effect, giving a more delicate and gentle depth to the background.
Finally, the Dark background shadow style provides a darker, more intense effect, adding depth and emphasizing the background even more.
Do you want to hide the title? Here you can select whether to show the webpart title or hide it. If set to visible, the web part title will appear on the left side.
Enter the application title Thanks to this configuration, you can customize the application title. If you keep it blank, SharePoint will show the default title “Documents” at the top left angle of the webpart.
In this section, you need to indicate the documents libraries from which the webpart will retrieve documents.
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).
Enter the URL of the favorite documents list. This feature allows users to mark files as favorites and create an area of favorite files.
Enter the path where the acknowledgment 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:
You should fill out this section if you need to set which documents each user will see in the webpart. It helps to classify documents based on a specific metadata. For example, if documents items are tagged by “category,” only those from a specific category will be displayed.
Enter the column name: enter “owstaxId” plus column name that you have set to assign documents tags. You must fill in this field if you prefer to pre-filter documents by tags. Only documents with specific tags will be included.
Enter the taxonomy’s unique id of the term set: copy and paste the id of the desired term set (which you can find in the Term store). You need to fill in this field only if your tenant has more than one Term store.
Then, select values to pre-filter the results: you can choose the tags for the documents you prefer to display in the Documents webpart.
Configure filters/tags: in this window, you can configure the various filters to be applied to your documents. By filling in this fields. the available filters for the documents will appear.
In the first column, write: owstaxId + the name of the column used to assign metadata to the news. For example, owstaxIdIAINewsTags.
In the second column, copy-paste the id of the term set. To do this, go to the Term store and find the id of the term set.
In the third column, enter the custom filter name you wish to apply. This is a name used to identify a filter you are creating, which will be applied to the news items. The custom filter helps organize and narrow down the displayed content based on specific criteria.
Show filter? Indicate whether the filter dropdown should be displayed to users. Flag this option if you want users to see and interact with the filter dropdown; leave it unflag it if you want to hide it.
Show tag? Determine if the tags assigned to the news should be displayed in the news preview. Flag this option to show the tags; unflag it if they should be hidden from view.
Show search bar? Specify if a search bar should be shown in the filter dropdown to allow users to search for a specific tag. If you want a search bar to appear, flag this option; otherwise, unflag it. This functionality can be useful in case you think you’re going to have a large number of tags.
Stop reordering: This option prevents the ability to reorder items. By default, the webpart sorts tags alphabetically. However, there might be cases (such as the Months) you might need to sort by the same order set in the Term Store. That said, flag this option if you want to follow the same sorting order available in the Term store, or unflag it if you want to keep the alphabetical order.
Open filter on startup? Indicate whether the filter dropdown should be automatically applied when the page or view loads. Flag this option if you want the filter to be open as soon as the page starts; unflag it if you don’t.
Select AD groups to manage the audience: you can choose audiences by selecting one or more AD groups from a drop-down menu.
Insert the language managed property if it has been manually edited: Here 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.
Hide filters: this setting allows you to show or hide filters, such as the favorites filter, on the right side of the web part. If you select 'Yes,' the filters (also the search bar) will be hidden from the documents in the web part. If you select 'No,' the filters will remain visible.
In this section, you need to set general options for document management, such as the sorting direction, the number of documents to load, and other configurations.
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.
You can choose the number of documents to load.
Enter the taxonomy’s unique id of the term set: copy and paste the id of the desired term set (which you can find in the Term store). You need to fill in this field only if your tenant has more than one Term store.
Enter text for the button to see other documents: This configuration allows you to enter custom text for the button. When clicked, the button will enable the user to view other documents.
Set the button to load more documents or to open a link: 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.
Select a property to sort documents: you can choose to sort documents by modification date, creation date, filename or title. Select your preferred option from the drop-down menu.
Select the direction of the sort: you can decide to order documents from the most recent or from the least recent.
Show documents with the searched word in the title first? 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.
In this section, you can set options concerning the display order of your files.
Show download icon? You can decide to show or hide a download icon which you can click to download the document.
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.
Select to show the document title: This visibility option allows you to include or exclude the file extension from the title of the document.
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.
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.
Enter the URL of the favorite documents list. This feature allows users to mark files as favorites and create an area of favorite files.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Hover your mouse above or below an existing web part. You will see a line with a circled +, like this: .
Click on the Edit properties button on the left of the web part to open the property pane, which has four sections: Layout settings, Data sources, Filters settings, General Settings and Display settings. See below for more information on each of these sections.
It is recommended to create a documents subsite to collect document libraries. See the section titled to learn how to do so.
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 to learn how to do so.
to access the Term store.
for more information about the creation of tag systems for news and documents.
to discover how to configure the id of the term set store.
Please refer to our guide 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.
It is recommended to create a documents subsite to collect document libraries. See the section titled 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 ).
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 to learn how to do so.
Please refer to our guide 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.
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 web part, which is explained in a dedicated guide.
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 .
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 .
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 . In particular, please refer to the First type of configuration section.
