Content categorization must take consumers in to account. In SharePoint, you can use web applications, site collections, sites, lists and libraries to create groupings of content. Folders in document libraries promote content duplication and (most often) a security model that is complex to maintain. Think about grouping your content in to multiple sites and libraries instead of folders.

I’m planning to move my file system to sharepoint and in a dilemma over folder use.
I have a folder and all files within the department requires access full access to. But some members in the department need read access to only. How can I arrange this without folder use ?

Thank you!

Great video, I will update my post with a link to it…

Bob Mixon

Absolutely, there are specific scenarios where using folders does make sense! And, when doing so, I like the idea of it being workflow driven for consistency reasons.

We also need to remember that its much less of an issue to have thousands of sub-sites either. For example, I am currently working on a procurement contract management solution and we decided to use sub-sites for the management of those contracts. Meaning, each contract and all associated documents are stored and managed in a single site; and there are thousands. We are also using workflow to manage the look-up lists (catalogs) for those sites. I will write more about this as I have time.

Great stuff Paul; please keep coming back and telling readers how you use SharePoint to solve your business needs!

Bob Mixon

Someone recently came to my blog and asked for a visual demonstration of why nested folders are not ideal, and I did a screencast. I couldn’t find anyone else who had done one.