Module 5 of 7

🎯 SharePoint Course · Module 5 of 7

Content Services — Term Store, Content Types & Search

📂 Course: SharePoint Online Administration
📦 Module: 5 of 7
🎯 Exam: MS-102
⏱ Read time: ~22 min

MS-102 Exam Alignment
MS-102

Know the term store hierarchy: Term store → Term groups → Term sets → Terms
Know that managed metadata columns use term store terms to tag documents — enabling consistent taxonomy-driven classification across all sites
Know the Content Type Hub — publishes content types tenant-wide to all site collections via syndication
Know that crawled properties must be mapped to managed properties before they are searchable, and a site re-index is required for existing content to reflect new mappings

Exam Tip: Term store = the vocabulary (what values exist). Content types = the template (which metadata fields appear). A content type can include a Managed Metadata column that points to a term set — combining structured metadata with controlled vocabulary for consistent document classification.

Content services give SharePoint its intelligence layer — instead of being a simple file store, SharePoint becomes a platform where documents are classified, tagged, and discoverable through consistent taxonomy. The term store provides the controlled vocabulary; content types provide the document templates; search ties everything together so users can find content by metadata, not just file name.

🏷️ Term Store & Managed Metadata

The term store is a centralised taxonomy management system accessible from SharePoint admin center → Content services → Term store.

Concept	Description	Example
Term store	The root container — the entire managed metadata service for the tenant	The “Contoso Term Store”
Term group	Top-level organisational container. Only term store admins can manage groups	“Finance Terms”, “HR Terms”
Term set	A collection of related terms. Can be open (users can add new terms) or closed (only admins can add)	“Document Types” — Contract, Invoice, Policy, Report
Term	An individual value. Terms can have labels (synonyms), descriptions, and nested child terms	“Contract” → “Sales Contract”, “Vendor Contract”
Managed metadata column	A library column that lets users tag items with terms from a term set — ensuring consistent tagging across all sites	A “Document Category” column pointing to the “Document Types” term set

💡 Open vs Closed Term Sets

Open term set: Any contributor can add new terms from the document library column. Useful for growing vocabularies where users know the domain best
Closed term set: Only term store contributors can add new terms. Users must choose from existing values. Required for compliance-critical taxonomies where consistency is mandatory

📄 Content Types & the Content Type Hub

Concept	Description
Site content type	Defined at site level (Site Settings → Site content types). Available to all lists and libraries within that site and its sub-sites
List/library content type	A copy of a site content type added to a specific list or library. Inherits from the site content type but can be customised for that library
Content Type Hub	A special site collection that publishes content types tenant-wide. Published content types are available in ALL site collections after syndication
Syndication	The process of pushing content types from the Content Type Hub to subscribing site collections. Happens automatically on schedule or can be triggered manually via PowerShell
Document template	A content type can include a Word/Excel/PowerPoint template that opens pre-configured when a user creates a new document of that type

🔍 SharePoint Search — Crawled & Managed Properties

Search Concept	Description
Crawled properties	Auto-discovered by the search crawler when indexing content — SharePoint column values prefixed with “ows_”, document metadata, Office properties
Managed properties	Properties usable in search queries, refiners, and display templates. Must be explicitly created and mapped to one or more crawled properties
Mapping & re-indexing	A managed property only works after mapping to a crawled property AND a site re-index completes. Existing content is not searchable via the new property until re-indexed
Microsoft Search	Modern search experience surfacing results across SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, Bing. Admins configure Bookmarks, Acronyms, and Answers in Microsoft 365 admin center → Search & intelligence

PowerShell — Term Store & Content Types (PnP)

Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://your-tenant.sharepoint.com -Interactive

# Get all term groups in the term store
Get-PnPTermGroup | Select-Object Name,Id

# Get term sets within a specific group
Get-PnPTermSet -TermGroup 'Finance Terms' | Select-Object Name,IsOpenForTermCreation

# Get all terms in a term set
Get-PnPTerm -TermSet 'Document Types' -TermGroup 'Finance Terms' | Select-Object Name,Id

# Get content types on a site
Get-PnPContentType | Select-Object Name,Group | Sort-Object Name

# Add a published hub content type to a library
Add-PnPContentTypeToList -List 'Documents' -ContentType 'Finance Invoice'

# Trigger site re-index after search schema changes
Request-PnPReIndexWeb

💡 Best Practices

Design the term store taxonomy before deployment — changing term names after documents have been tagged requires updating all tagged documents; plan upfront with information managers
Use closed term sets for compliance-critical classifications (document type, classification level) — open term sets accumulate misspellings and variations that undermine taxonomy value
Publish shared content types from the Content Type Hub rather than recreating them in every site — one change at the hub propagates to all subscribing sites automatically
After creating custom managed properties for search, always request a re-index — without re-indexing, existing documents are not discoverable via the new managed property

🎓 Interview Q&A

Q: An organisation needs a “Vendor Contract” content type with the same columns and template in all 50 SharePoint sites. What is the most efficient approach?

Create the content type in the Content Type Hub site collection and publish it. Content types published from the hub are syndicated (pushed automatically) to all site collections in the tenant. Once published, site owners in all 50 sites can add the “Vendor Contract” content type to their libraries — with identical columns, template, and policies — without any manual recreation. Updates made in the hub also propagate automatically to all subscribing sites on the next sync cycle.

🎯 MS-102 Mock Test

Module 5 — Content Services

5 questions · Scenario-based · Pass mark: 70%

Q1 of 5

An admin creates and maps a new managed property “ProjectCode” in SharePoint Search. Users search for project codes but existing documents return no results. What is the cause?

AThe managed property name must exactly match the SharePoint column name

BManaged metadata columns cannot be used in search

CA site re-index has not been run — existing documents have not been re-crawled with the new managed property mapping

DThe term set must be published to the Content Type Hub first

✅ C. After creating and mapping a managed property, the change only applies to content indexed after the mapping is created. Existing documents must be re-indexed via Request-PnPReIndexWeb or Site Settings → Search → Reindex site. Until re-indexing completes, existing documents are not searchable via the new managed property.

Q2 of 5

What is the correct hierarchy of the SharePoint term store from largest to smallest container?

ATerm store → Terms → Term sets → Term groups

BTerm store → Term sets → Term groups → Terms

CTerm groups → Term store → Term sets → Terms

DTerm store → Term groups → Term sets → Terms

✅ D. Term store → Term groups → Term sets → Terms. The term store is the root container. Term groups organise term sets by department or function. Term sets contain collections of terms (e.g., “Document Types”). Terms are the individual values (e.g., “Invoice”, “Contract”) which can also have nested child terms.

Q3 of 5

An organisation needs the same “Vendor Contract” content type (identical columns and document template) in all 50 SharePoint sites. What is the correct approach?

ACreate the content type in the Content Type Hub and publish it — available in all site collections after syndication

BCreate the content type in the root site collection — all sub-sites inherit it automatically

CUse PowerShell to create the content type in all 50 sites simultaneously

DCreate a site template from one site and apply it to the remaining 49 sites

✅ A. The Content Type Hub is designed for this scenario. Content types published from the hub are syndicated to all site collections in the tenant. Once published, site owners across all 50 sites can add the content type to their libraries — with identical columns and templates — without manual recreation. Updates propagate automatically on the next sync.

Q4 of 5

A term set is configured as “Closed.” A user tries to tag a document with a new value that doesn’t exist in the term set. What happens?

AThe new value is added to the term set and the document is tagged

BThe value is not accepted — users must select from existing terms only. Only term store admins can add new terms to a closed term set

CThe value is saved as a keyword rather than a managed term

DThe document cannot be saved until the user selects an existing term

✅ B. In a closed term set, users can only select from existing terms — the managed metadata picker will not find or create a new value. Only users with term store management rights can add new terms to a closed term set, enforcing taxonomy consistency for compliance-critical classifications.

Q5 of 5

A SharePoint column named “CostCentre” is used to classify documents. An admin wants users to search by cost centre value. What are the required steps in the correct order?

ACreate a managed property → map it to the ows_CostCentre crawled property → re-index affected sites

BCustom columns are automatically searchable — no additional configuration needed

CAdd the column to the site’s default search scope in site settings

DCreate a search refiner pointing to the CostCentre column name directly in SharePoint

✅ A. The process: (1) When the CostCentre column is used and content is crawled, SharePoint auto-creates a crawled property ows_CostCentre. (2) The admin creates a managed property and maps it to the crawled property in Search Schema. (3) The admin triggers a re-index of affected sites via Request-PnPReIndexWeb. After completion, users can search using CostCentre:"CC100".

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Locked — Complete Module 4 first.