Import term sets

You can import term sets into the Term Store management tool instead of building out term sets and terms manually. This can save time, especially if there are many terms.

There are three steps involved in importing a term set:

1. Download a copy of the import file

2. Fill out the import file by using your term set values

3. Import a term set

What do you want to do?

Open the Term Store Management Tool

In SharePoint Online

In SharePoint Server

Download a copy of the import file

Fill out the import file by using your term set values

Import a term set

Open the Term Store Management Tool

To open the Term Store management tool, select the SharePoint environment that you use, and then follow these steps.

In SharePoint Online

1. Sign in to Office 365 with your work or school account.

2. Go to the SharePoint admin center.

3. Select Term Store to open the Term Store management tool.

In SharePoint Server

1. From the site collection Home page, select Site Contents.

2. On the Site Contentspage, select Settings.

3. On the Site Settings page, in the Site Administration group, select Term store management.

After you open the Term Store management tool, you can download a copy of the import file or import a term set.

Download a copy of the import file

In the Term Store management tool, you can download a copy of a .CSV (comma-separated values) file that you can use to compile the terms in your term set.

1. Open the Term Store Management Tool.

2. Select the taxonomy in the tree view pane on the left.

3. On the General tab of the properties pane, in the Sample Import section, select View a sample import file.

4. In the File Download dialog box, select Save, and select the location where you want to save the file.

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Fill out the import file by using your term set values

Each import file can contain a single term set. You can arrange the terms in a hierarchy that is up to seven levels deep. If you want to import multiple term sets, you have to create a file for each term set. Before you fill out the import file, you'll want to give some thought about how you want to group your organization's metadata into term sets and terms. For more information about how to plan the content of your term sets, see Plan terms and term sets in SharePoint Server 2013.

Follow these steps to fill out the import file:

1. Open the sample import file that you have downloaded.

2. Study the file to become familiar with the hierarchy of a term set.

3. To add terms, delete all rows in the CSV except the first, and then enter the information for the terms that you want to use.

For more information about how to plan to import term sets, see Plan to import managed metadata. For more detailed information about the input file format for term sets and how to fill out the file, see Managed metadata input file format.

Import a term set

You must be assigned to a Term Store Administrator or a Group Manager role to import term sets. For more information about managed metadata roles, see Assign roles and permissions to manage term sets.

1. Open the Term Store Management Tool.

2. In the tree view pane on the left, expand the groups to find the group where you want to import the term set.

3. Point to the group, select the arrow that appears, and then select Import Term Set.

4. In the Term set import dialog box, select Browse, locate the import file that you have updated with the term set values, and then select Open.

5. In the Term set import dialog box, select OK.