Document Set Feature in SharePoint 2013

In this article I would like to take you through the Document Set feature of SharePoint 2013.

What is Document Set?

Document Sets are a feature in SharePoint Server 2013 that enables an organization to manage a single deliverable, or work product, that can include multiple documents or files.

Simply, you can see it as a collection of documents packed together.

While working with Document Libraries, you can upload a Document Set instead of a single document. A Document Set can contain multiple documents having the same columns as the Document Library.

How to enable a Document Set

For enabling & using a Document Set, use the following procedure:

1. Activate Document Set feature
2. Enable Content Type
3. Add documents

Please see the following details of the procedure.

Activate Document Set feature

Open your site, then the Site Settings page.



Click on the "Site collection features" link, you will get the page below.



Click on the "Activate" button corresponding to the Document Sets feature. Wait for a while for the activation operation to complete.

Enable Content Type

Document Set is enabled for a library by enabling the Document Set content type.

Create a new library, choose the library settings, Advanced Settings & enable the following option.



Save the changes & go back to the Library Settings. From the content types section, choose "Add".



In the page that appears, add the Document Set content type then save the changes.



Now you are ready with multiple content types for your Document Library.

Add Documents

Open the Document Library & choose the "FILES" tab, select the "New Document Set" context menu.



In the dialog box that appears, enter the name of the Document Set, you can upload the documents later.



Saving changes will take you to the next screen for adding documents.



Here you can add multiple documents for the same document set. Please note that the upload screen the Document Set is "Folder".



As shown below, you can see that the multiple documents exist in the same document set. Plus, the Document Library columns are available for the child documents as well.



This concludes our usage of Document Set.

Note: Under the hood, Document Set can be considered as a Folder.

References

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff603637.aspx

Summary

In this article we have explored the Document Set feature of SharePoint 2013, Activating, Enabling & Creating a document set.