Create and Publish Tenant‑Wide Content Types in the SharePoint Content Type Gallery

You can create content types in the SharePoint admin center and publish them so all sites in your tenant can reuse them.
This article shows you how to:

• Create a content type in the Content type gallery
• Publish, republish, and unpublish the content type
• Configure advanced and policy settings
• Delete a content type safely

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Create a content type in the Content type gallery

Use the Content type gallery when you want a tenant-wide content type that site owners can add to lists and libraries.

Step 1: Open the Content type gallery

1. Open the SharePoint admin center.
2. In the left navigation, select Content services.
3. Select Content type gallery.

On this page, you see a list of tenant-level content types, along with their Site content type, Parent, Category, and Last published values.

Step 2: Start creating a content type

1. On the Content type gallery page, select Create content type.
2. A panel opens where you can enter details for the new content type.

Step 3: Enter basic information

In the create panel:

1. Enter a Name for the content type.
2. Enter a Description that explains its purpose to admins and site owners.

Step 4: Choose or create a category

Content type categories help group related content types.

You have two options:

• Use an existing category
• Create a new category

Use an existing category

1. Under Category, select Use an existing category.
2. In the Name drop-down list, choose one of the built-in categories, such as:
   • Business Intelligence
   • Community Content Types
   • Custom Content Types
   • Digital Asset Content Types
   • Display Template Content Types
   • Document Content Types
   • Document Set Content Types
   • Folder Content Types
   • Group Work Content Types
   • List Content Types
   • Special Content Types

Choose the category that best fits how you want to organize your content type.

Create a new category

If none of the existing categories fits, create your own.

1. Under Category, select Create a new category.
2. Enter a category name, for example Business Unit.

The new category will be available for this and future content types.

Step 5: Select a parent content type

Every content type inherits from a parent content type.

In the Parent content type section, you see two drop-down lists:

• Parent category
• Content type

1. In Parent category, choose the category that contains the parent content type you want to inherit from.
2. In Content type, choose a specific content type from that category. The options change depending on the parent category you selected.

Choose a parent that closely matches the behavior you need, such as a document-based content type or a list item content type.

Step 6: Create the content type

1. After you’ve configured Name, Description, Category, and Parent content type, select Create.

You’ll see a details page for the new content type. This page shows:

• Name
• Category
• Parent
• Content Type ID
• Site columns currently included in the content type

From here, you can add or remove site columns and further configure the content type.

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Edit a content type

You can edit a tenant-level content type at any time to change its columns or settings.

1. In the Content type gallery, select the content type you want to edit.
2. On the command bar, select Edit.
3. Make the required changes, such as adding or removing site columns.
4. Select Save.

If the content type is already published to sites, you must republish it to push changes to subscribers.

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Manage publishing for a content type

Publishing makes the content type available in all sites in the tenant that subscribe to the hub.

Open the Manage Publishing panel

1. In the SharePoint admin center, go to Content services > Content type gallery.
2. Select the content type you created.
3. On the command bar, select Publish.

The Manage Publishing panel opens with options:

• Publish
• Unpublish
• Republish

Publish a content type

Use Publish when you’ve created a new content type and want to make it available to all sites.

1. In the Manage Publishing panel, make sure Publish is selected.
2. Select Save.

After the publishing jobs run, the content type becomes available to site owners, who can add it to lists and libraries on their sites.

Republish a content type

Use Republish when you’ve updated a content type and want to distribute the changes to all subscribing sites.

1. Edit the content type as needed.
2. Return to the content type page and select Publish on the command bar.
3. In the Manage Publishing panel, select Republish.
4. Select Save.

The updated definition replaces the previous version in subscribing sites.

Unpublish a content type

Use Unpublish when you no longer want a content type to be available to sites.

1. On the content type page, select Publish on the command bar.
2. In the Manage Publishing panel, select Unpublish.
3. Select Save.

When you unpublish:

• The content type is no longer available for download to sites.
• Any copies of this content type in sites are converted to local content types, so existing lists and libraries keep working with a local copy.

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Configure content type settings

On the content type page, the command bar also includes Settings, which provides access to:

• Advanced settings
• Policy settings

Advanced settings

Use Advanced settings to control permissions and how updates flow to child content types.

1. On the content type page, select Settings on the command bar.
2. Select Advanced settings.

You can configure:

• Permissions
  • Choose Edit to allow changes to the content type.
  • Choose Read to restrict it to read-only mode, preventing changes by others who use it.
• Update sites and lists
  • Select the checkbox to update all site and list content types that inherit from this content type with the settings on this page.
  • Use this when you want changes to cascade down to subscribing content types.

Select Save when you’re finished.

Policy settings

Use Policy settings to configure information management policies for the content type, such as retention, auditing, barcodes, and labels.

1. On the content type page, select Settings.
2. Select Policy settings.
3. You’re redirected to the content type hub policy configuration page.

Here, you can set:

• Name and Administrative Description
  • Provide a clear name and admin description for the policy.
• Policy Statement
  • Describe the policy in user-facing terms if needed.

Then enable specific policy features:

• Retention
  • Select Enable Retention to configure how long to keep content and what to do when it expires.
• Auditing
  • Select Enable Auditing to log actions on items of this content type.
• Barcodes
  • Select Enable Barcodes to assign barcodes to items for physical tracking scenarios.
• Labels
  • Select Enable Labels to add labels for records or compliance markings.

Save your changes after configuring the policy.

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Delete a content type

You can delete a tenant-level content type if your organization no longer needs it.

1. In the Content type gallery, select the content type you want to delete.
2. On the command bar, select Delete content type.
3. A confirmation dialog appears.
4. Select Yes, delete this content type, then select Delete.

When you delete a content type from the Content type gallery:

• The content type is unpublished from the hub.
• Any sites that already use the content type continue to work because their copies become local content types.
• Deleting the tenant-level definition doesn’t delete local copies on sites.

This reduces risk when cleaning up unused centralized content types.

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Other general options

The Content type gallery includes several tools to help you manage many content types efficiently.

You can:

• Filter by parent content type or category
• Search by content type name
• Use View options to change how the content type list is displayed

These options help you quickly locate and manage the content types you need.

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Summary

In this article, you learned how to:

• Create a tenant-level content type in the Content type gallery
• Choose categories and parent content types
• Edit and publish, republish, or unpublish a content type
• Use Advanced settings to control permissions and inheritance
• Use Policy settings to configure retention, auditing, barcodes, and labels
• Delete a published content type safely without affecting existing site content types

Together with the term store, content types provide a consistent way to model information across your SharePoint environment.