BASPUG Quick Tip Perils of the Title column

 Strategies with the Title Column

Appropriate for SharePoint 2007 or 2010

I presented this quick tip at the January BASPUG meeting in Cambridge MA.

The Title column is an OOB SharePoint field that provides what it says:  a title for a list item.  The name of the column can be changed and it can provide a nice pull-down menu with access to view, edit, delete the meta data.  The title column is great for a simple summarization of the information contained in the entry.

The negatives of using the column are many:

1.  Automatic naming of an item is difficult (not impossible:  work flows and InfoPath tricks)

2.  Using the title column precludes the use of this field to filter data using a SharePoint List Filter Web Part.

3.  Using this field for look up columns may cause confusion.

4.  Sometimes clients want the title to be a multiple line field:  not possible with the title field.

I suggest thinking about the need for the title column  in your SharePoint solution.

How to remove the Title Column is a Popular Question 

1.  Undo the "require" column setting 

2.  Hide the column by turning on content management and choose hide (column must not be required at the column level)
 
3.  In the default view, choose the "edit" option  (This will allow the users to edit the meta data.)

 

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Welcome to my SharePoint blog.  I hope to share my trials and tribulations using SharePoint and InfoPath along with the many associated tools of the trade.