Manage Terms and Term Sets in SharePoint Term Store

Terms are predefined, reusable words or phrases that provide a consistent way to tag and categorize content across SharePoint sites. Terms come in two types: managed terms (organized hierarchically in term sets) and enterprise keywords (used for free-form tagging). This article covers how to create and manage term groups, term sets, and terms in the SharePoint Term Store.

Key Concepts

• Term: A single word or phrase (e.g., “SharePoint”, “Networking”).
• Term Set: A collection of related terms (e.g., “Skills” term set containing “SharePoint”, “Networking”).
• Term Group: A container for related term sets (e.g., “Employee” group containing “Skills”, “Business Unit”).
• Term Store: The central admin tool for managing all terms and taxonomies.

Use terms to standardize metadata like employee skills, business units, or project categories across your tenant.

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Prerequisites

• SharePoint Administrator or Term Store Administrator role
• Access to the SharePoint admin center at admin.microsoft.com/sharepoint

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Access the Term Store

1. Sign in to the SharePoint admin center.
2. In the left navigation, select Content services.
3. Select Term store.

You’ll see the default Taxonomy group containing People, Search Dictionaries, and System groups.

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Create a Term Group

Term groups organize related term sets and provide security boundaries.

1. In the Term Store, select Taxonomy (default).
2. In the right pane, select Add term group.
3. Enter a name like Employee and press Enter.

The new group appears in the tree view.

Rename a Term Group

1. Select the term group (e.g., Employee).
2. Select Rename term group or the Edit icon next to the name.
3. Update the Name and Description.
4. Select Save.

Delete a Term Group

1. Select the term group.
2. Select Delete term group from the command bar or show actions menu.
3. Confirm the permanent deletion.Warning: Deleting a term group removes all contained term sets and terms.

Manage Term Group Permissions

Assign roles to control who can manage the group.

1. Select the term group.
2. Under Group Managers or Contributors, select Edit.
3. Add users or groups via the people picker.
4. Assign roles:RolePermissionsGroup ManagersAdd/remove contributors; full term set managementContributorsCreate/manage term sets in this group
5. Select Save.

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Create a Term Set

Term sets contain individual terms and are created within a term group.

Requirements: Contributor permission on the parent term group.

1. Select the term group (e.g., Employee).
2. Select Add term set.
3. Enter a name like Business Unit and press Enter.

Repeat to create sets like Band, Skills, Horizontal Tag.

Import a Term Set

1. Select the term group.
2. Select Import term set.
3. Download the sample CSV, populate it with terms, and upload.

Other Term Set Actions

Action	Steps
Rename	Select term set > Rename term set > Update name/description
Delete	Select term set > Delete term set > Confirm (shared terms move to Orphaned Terms)
Copy	Select term set > Copy term set (creates “Original – Copy”)
Move	Select term set > Move term set > Choose destination group

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Configure Term Set Properties

Each term set has four tabs: General, Usage settings, Navigation, Advanced.

General Tab

Manage ownership and contact info.

1. Select the term set > General tab.
2. Select Edit next to Owner.
3. Assign:RolePurposeTerm set ownerOwns the term setStakeholdersReceives change notificationsContactReceives feedback from site owners
4. Note the Unique identifier (GUID) for reference.

Usage Settings Tab

Control how users interact with the term set.

1. Select Usage settings tab.
2. Configure:SettingOptionsSubmission policyOpen (all users can add terms) or Closed (admins/contributors only)Available for taggingEnable to make available in sitesSort orderAlphabetical or Custom (drag to reorder)

Navigation Tab

Use terms for site navigation.

1. Select Navigation tab.
2. Select Edit next to Use term set for site navigation.
3. Enable Use term set for site navigation.
4. Optionally configure:
   • Custom target page: Custom URL for term links
   • Custom catalog item page: Custom URL for catalog items
   • Use term set for faceted navigation

Advanced Tab

Handle translations and custom properties.

1. Select Advanced tab.
2. Translation:
   • Select Manage > Machine translation > Select terms/languages > Translate.
   • Export/import custom translations.
3. Custom properties:
   • Select Edit > Add Property name and Value pairs.

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Points to Remember

• Terms are globally available across all sites in your tenant once published.
• Changes to terms can take up to 24 hours to propagate to all sites.
• Managed terms maintain hierarchy; enterprise keywords are flat tags.
• Use Closed submission policy for controlled vocabularies.
• Deleting term sets moves shared terms to Orphaned Terms under System.

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Next Steps

• Term store management overview
• Create and manage term sets
• Use managed metadata in SharePoint
• Content type gallery

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