Term Store: Empower Users to Add Terms

Key insights

• Term Store and open term sets: The Term Store is SharePoint’s central repository for managed metadata. Setting a term set to Open lets users add new terms while tagging content, so taxonomies grow naturally as teams work.
  
• Three quick steps to enable user additions: Switch the term set’s Submission Policy to Open in the Term Store, create or map a Managed Metadata column to that term set on your list or library, and set Allow fill-in choices to Yes so users can type and submit new terms.
  
• User experience: When users type a new value in a list or library field that uses a managed metadata column, the new term appears in the term set automatically (if the set is Open). Users can add terms while tagging without needing admin access.
  
• Admin controls and location: Administrators manage settings in the SharePoint Admin Center > Content Services > Term Store or via Site Settings > Term Store management. Admins keep control of structural changes like renaming, merging, or deleting terms.
  
• Benefits: Allowing users to add terms improves content tagging adoption, speeds up taxonomy growth, supports hierarchical organization, and uses the modern UI for easier tagging and filtering across sites.
  
• Governance and limits: Use open sets selectively and keep a review process because only admins or term store owners can rename, merge, or delete terms. Plan taxonomy ownership and note tenant-scale limits when you expect large growth (tenant term limits have increased to support larger deployments).
  

SharePoint Maven Inc. published a YouTube video that demonstrates how organizations can let users add new taxonomy terms directly into the Term Store without granting full administrative rights. In the video, the presenter walks viewers through step-by-step settings and shows the user experience in lists and libraries, while emphasizing governance limits. Consequently, the guide aims to strike a balance between user flexibility and central control, making it especially relevant for teams that tag large volumes of content. Below, we summarize the video’s key points, explain how the feature works, and discuss tradeoffs and practical guidance for administrators.

Overview of the Feature

The video explains that administrators can convert a term set to an open term set so users can contribute new terms as they tag items. This setting lives in the modern Term Store within the SharePoint Admin Center and is controlled by the term set’s submission policy. Once enabled, tagging users can type new values that either appear immediately or require subsequent governance review, depending on configuration. The presenter notes that this capability fits scenarios where taxonomies must evolve quickly without creating a bottleneck for administrators.

How It Works in Practice

First, an administrator creates or selects a term set and edits its properties to set the submission policy to open. Next, a site owner maps that term set to a column of type Managed Metadata on a list or library, and then enables the option to allow fill-in choices. Finally, users who tag content can type new terms directly into the column; the new entries populate the term set and become available for others. The video also demonstrates how site owners can access local term management through Site Settings if they prefer a site-scoped taxonomy.

User Experience and Governance

From a user perspective, the flow is simple: type a term while editing and it is added to the term set when permitted, which accelerates tagging in dynamic teams. However, the presenter stresses that addition rights do not equate to moderation rights; only term store admins or designated term set owners can rename, merge, or delete terms. Therefore, organizations can allow broad contribution while retaining centralized cleanup and policy enforcement, which helps preserve metadata quality over time. In addition, the modern UI improvements make tagging and filtering more intuitive, reducing training overhead.

Tradeoffs and Practical Challenges

Although open term sets increase agility, they introduce risks such as inconsistent naming, duplicates, and unintended synonyms unless governance is actively managed. On the one hand, enabling user contributions improves adoption and reduces admin workload, but on the other hand, it can create a noisy taxonomy that requires periodic curation. Administrators must weigh the benefit of rapid term growth against the operational cost of review and cleanup, and decide whether to implement review workflows or scheduled audits. Moreover, scaling considerations arise for large tenants, although recent increases in term capacity make broader adoption more feasible.

Recommended Controls and Workflows

The video recommends several pragmatic controls: keep core, enterprise-wide taxonomies closed and expose more flexible, project-level term sets as open for contributions. Likewise, maintain a small team of term store owners who periodically review new entries, and consider using naming conventions or required metadata to limit ambiguity. For high-volume environments, automating review notifications or scheduling monthly governance sessions can reduce backlog and improve consistency. Finally, document the taxonomy strategy so contributors understand when to add terms and when to consult owners, which helps reduce accidental duplication.

Final Takeaways for Administrators

Overall, SharePoint Maven Inc.’s video presents a clear, actionable pathway to empower users while preserving central control over critical taxonomy decisions. Administrators should adopt open term sets selectively, map them thoughtfully to Managed Metadata columns, and pair open contribution with routine governance practices. In doing so, organizations can harness user knowledge to enrich metadata without sacrificing quality, although they must remain prepared to address the curation work that follows. Consequently, this approach can improve adoption and searchability when implemented with deliberate policies and ongoing oversight.

Keywords

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