Enterprise keywords are user-defined terms and phrases that can be entered as metadata values for columns. Keywords are similar to the term values in term sets in that users can select from an existing set of values. The difference is that users can enter their own keywords, which are automatically added to the list of terms available to other users. Keywords are stored in the Managed Metadata Service term store under a term set group called System and a term set called Keywords. Because of their free-form flexibility, keywords can be used to build a folksonomy out of terms entered by users. This is often described as tagging content because it is used by people to quickly find things that they are interested in later rather than as part of a structured data management plan. This may be sufficient to develop a metadata set that serves to classify content by itself. Alternatively, term store administrators can move terms from the Keywords term set into a closed and managed term set, which converts the terms from an informal folksonomy to a formal taxonomy.
Enabling Keyword Tagging
Keywords provide two levels of benefit for users. When keywords are enabled by themselves, users can easily assign metadata values without having to wait for them to be prepopulated into a term set. In addition, keywords can be synchronized with a user profile so that when users navigate to the Tags And Notes tab in their profile, they’ll see a list of all the keywords they’ve used and they can filter a list of all the content they’ve tagged.
To enable users to tag content with keywords:
1. Browse to the list or library and, on the ribbon, click the List or Library tab, then click the List Settings or Library Settings button.
2. Under Permissions And Management, click Enterprise Metadata and Keywords Settings.
3. To allow users to enter values in the Keywords field, under Enterprise Keywords, as shown in Figure 11.17, check the box “Add an Enterprise Keywords column to this list and enable Keyword synchronization.”
Figure 11.17: Enterprise Metadata and Keyword Settings
4. To allow users to see the keywords they’ve entered as a tag cloud in their user profile, under Save Metadata On This List As Social Tags, check the box “Add values in Managed Metadata and Enterprise Keywords fields to My Site profiles as social tags.”
5. Click OK.
Site administrators can show a tag cloud of keywords that have been entered in that site by adding the Tag Cloud web part to a page. The web part will display all the keywords that users have entered in that site, and when a keyword is clicked, it will take users to a page displaying all the content tagged with that keyword.
Viewing Keywords
Keywords are stored in the Managed Metadata Service as a term set. To view the keywords that users have entered, do the following:
1. From SharePoint 2010 Central Administration, under Application Management, click Manage Service Applications.
2. On the Manage Service Applications page, click the row for the Managed Metadata Service application; then from the ribbon, click the Manage button.
3. The Term Store Management Tool page opens.
4. Under the Taxonomy Term Store, expand the System term set group and then expand the Keywords term set. This set will contain the list of all the keywords that users have entered.
Modifying, Deleting, and Moving Keywords
From the Term Store Management Tool page, a keyword can be edited, moved, or deleted. Editing a keyword has the following effects:
- The new value will become available for other users to see.
- The value that is stored in the Keywords field will not change. Existing keywords that have already been saved with that value will not be altered.
To completely change a keyword value, it is necessary to delete it. To delete a keyword, click the context menu on the keyword and select Delete Keyword from the menu. Deleting a keyword has the following effects:
- The keyword is no longer available for any user to select.
- Users may still enter the value as a new keyword.
- Columns that still hold the old value of the keyword will not be affected.
- The keyword no longer will appear in the tag cloud on the site or in the user profiles.
Keywords can be moved to other term sets. To move a keyword, click the context menu on the keyword and select Move Keyword from the menu; then select the destination term set to move it to.
Blocking Keywords
Blocking a keyword stops it from being used and also prevents it from being reentered as a new keyword. To block a keyword, click on the keyword in the Term Store Management Tool and then uncheck the Available For Tagging option on the term’s properties page.
Making a term no longer available for tagging blocks it from view in the Tag Cloud web part and in user profiles, and prevents users from entering it or selecting it in the Enterprise Keywords field.