Use reusable content

In any publishing environment, it is useful to be able to reuse content. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides the capability to reuse content in any site collection that has publishing features that are enabled by using the Reusable Content list.

You can add items to the Reusable Content list and create categories and folders within the list to help you organize these items. When you add items to the Reusable Content list, you can add those items to page content by using the Reusable Content Picker.

In this article

What is the Reusable Content list?

Why use reusable content?

When can I use reusable content?

How do I use reusable content?

What is the Reusable Content list?

The Reusable Content list is a collection of content that you create for your site collection that is stored as items in a list. Each item of reusable content can consist of either HTML or plain text and can be designated as either automatically updated or not.

Reusable content that consists of HTML can contain text and HTML elements, such as images, tables, and lists. These HTML elements can be styled or formatted as needed.

Reusable content that consists of plain text can contain only unformatted, unstyled text.

If a reusable content item is designated as automatically updated, the content is inserted into Web pages as a read-only reference, and the page content is updated if the item is changed.

If the reusable content item is not designated as automatically updated, the content is inserted as a copy in the Web page, and the content is not updated if the item is changed.

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Why use reusable content?

There are two basic scenarios in which reusable content is most useful:

• Branding and policy     You can use reusable content to create branded HTML items that need to be exactly the same across your site collection, such as a company logo or a product name. Similarly, you can use reusable content to create policy content, such as a privacy policy or a license agreement. When you use reusable content for these purposes, you should specify that the reusable content be updated automatically to ensure that it appears the same wherever it is used in your site collection.

• Templates     You can use reusable content to create starting points for page authors. For example, you may have a standard introduction with a disclaimer that you want to appear at the beginning of all opinion articles that are published in your site collection.

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When can I use reusable content?

You can use reusable content whenever you use the HTML Editor to edit content that is contained by a Page Content field control.

Note: Although you also use the HTML Editor to edit content that is contained by a Content Editor Web Part, reusable content is not available for use in a Web Part.

Whether a page has a Page Content field control depends on the page layout that is used to create the page. Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides several page layouts that have Page Content field controls, and you can create custom page layouts that have Page Content field controls by using Web-authoring tools that interoperate with Office SharePoint Server 2007, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides the following page layouts that have a Page Content field control:

• Article Pages     There are four Article Page page layouts, all of which have a Page Content field control:

  • Article page with body only

  • Article page with image on left

  • Article page with image on right

  • Article page with summary links

• Welcome Pages     There are several Welcome Page page layouts, three of which have a Page Content field control:

  • Intranet Home

  • Welcome page with summary links

  • Welcome page with table of contents

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How do I use reusable content?

There are two aspects of using reusable content: creating items for the Reusable Content list and adding items from the Reusable Content list to a page.

Add an item to the Reusable Content list

To add an item to the Reusable Content list, you must have contributor permissions for the site collection that contains the list. Do the following to add an item to the Reusable Content list:

1. On the home page of the site collection, on the Site Actions menu, click View All Site Content. The All Site Content page opens.

2. On the All Site Content page, under Lists, click Reusable Content. The Reusable Content list opens.

3. On the list toolbar, click the arrow next to New, and then click Reusable HTML or Reusable Text. The New Item page opens.

   Note: You can also create folders in the Reusable Content list by clicking New Folder on the New menu. You can use folders to organize your list items. To create reusable content in one of these folders, click the folder, and then resume from the beginning of this step.

4. On the New Item page, you can set the following item properties:

   • Title      You must enter a title for the item. The title appears as the name of the item in the Reusable Content list.

   • Comments      You can enter comments about the item. Comments can be formatted by using the toolbar at the top of the Comments box. In some views of the Reusable Content list, including the default view, these comments appear in the Comments column.

   • Content Category      You can select a content category from the list, if any are defined. Content categories can be defined by site administrators or the owner of the Reusable Content list by editing the Content Category column of the Reusable Content list.

   • Automatic Update      Select Automatic Update if you want the item to be updated automatically.

   • Reusable HTML or Reusable Text     For Reusable HTML, click Edit Content to open the HTML Editor. You can then create your reusable content item by using the HTML Editor. For Reusable Text, type in the Reusable Text box to create your reusable content item.

Add reusable content to a page

When you want to add an item from the Reusable Content list to a page, you use the HTML Editor.

1. On the page to which you want to add reusable content, on the Site Actions menu, click Edit Page.

2. In the Page Content field control, click Edit Content. The HTML Editor opens and displays the page content.

3. In the HTML Editor window, click the Insert Reusable Content toolbar button. The Select Reusable Content Web Page dialog box opens and displays the contents of the Reusable Content list.

4. Browse the Reusable Content list for the item that you want to add to your page, and then double-click the item that you want to add to the page.

5. If you do not see the item that you want, it may not have been created. To add new reusable content, click Open List in the Select Reusable Content Web Page dialog box, and then follow the steps in the preceding section starting at step 3.

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