Managed Metadata “Gotchas”
One of the new features in SharePoint 2010 are Managed Metadata columns. As Microsoft puts it, “Managed metadata is a hierarchical collection of centrally managed terms that you can define, and then use as attributes for items in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010″. There are many advantages of using managed metadata columns in your lists such as consistency, improved search results, metadata navigation as well as being able to delegate management of term sets to other users.
As great as this new feature is, there are couple of limitations that you will eventually run into:
Managed Metadata fields are READ ONLY in Datasheet Views
This is big problem if you are expecting to be able to do bulk updates in a list or document library using the datasheet view – the columns become read only:
Managed Metadata fields cannot be used in forms customized with InfoPath
If you try to customize any list forms that contain Managed Metadata fields using InfoPath – be prepared to see the following dialog box too:
Updates: 9/16/2010 - A 3rd party tool that was brought to my attention and allows you to bulk edit managed metadata fields is EBAX for SharePoint (http://www.sharepointexcel.com/metadata.htm).
A workaround is to set the default value of the field when you upload multiple documents. Unfortuntely, this creates another “gotcha” in that users need to have access to the document library settings if you want them to do it themselves.
Tina, that is so simple yet GENIUS!!!
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