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How to enable users to add new Terms to the Term Store

Posted on July 2, 2025
SharePoint

As you probably already know from my blog, Term Store is one of my favorite SharePoint features. It has lots of excellent capabilities that make using metadata a pleasant experience. By default, only SharePoint Admins or Term Group owners can manage data sets within the term store. So that means if a regular user tries to tag a document against a given value, but it does not exist, they need to contact the Admins to add one for them. Sometimes this is desired workflow – i.e., if you maintain a list of vendors or clients – you don’t want everyone to type whatever they want – this would defeat the whole purpose of the term store and make it a mess quickly. However, sometimes, you do want users to be able to contribute to the Term Store, for example, if it is a local department term set and does not impact the whole org. Luckily, we have a way to do so. The feature I would like to describe to you today is the ability for users to add metadata to the Term Store themselves.

Enableusersaddtermstore5

Enterprise Keywords

Before I show you how to have users add values to the terms store, I want to mention that we already have a functionality within the Term Store for users to do so in a special section called Enterprise Keywords. I explained how to do that in this article. The terms added there by users can only be used within the Enterprise Keywords column if such a column is activated.

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How to enable users to add new Terms to the Term Store

Step 1: Enable the Submission policy in the Term Store

  1. The first step is to enable the submission policy in the Term Store. To do so, from the SharePoint Admin Center, click on Term Store under Content servicesEnableusersaddtermstore1
  2. Next, select the Term Set you would like to enable for users, choose the Usage settings tab, then click Edit next to the Submission policy.enable users to add new Terms to the Term Store
  3. By default, it will be Closed. Choose the Open radio button, then click Save.enable users to add new Terms to the Term Store
  4. Submission policy will now display Openenable users to add new Terms to the Term Store

Step 2: Allow users to add values at a Column level

Though you changed the Submission policy at the Term Store/Term Set level, this is not enough. You must also adjust a setting at the column level. To do so:

    1. Click the drop-down next to a Managed Metadata column > Column settings > EditEnableusersaddtermstore6
    2. Click on More options at the bottom, then enable the radio button next to Allow users to type new valuesenable users to add new Terms to the Term Store
    3. The toggle will now say “Yes“enable users to add new Terms to the Term Store

User Experience

Once the above setup is completed, this is what the user experience will be when they try to tag content

  1. They will see three dots next to the Term Set (I wish it was a bit more obvious!). Once they click on the three dots > New term, they will be able to add new terms.enable users to add new Terms to the Term Store
  3. Once the new term is typed in, they would click ApplyEnableusersaddtermstore10Enableusersaddtermstore11
  4. The above step would tag the item and add the term to the existing Term Set within the Term StoreEnableusersaddtermstore12

Nuances about the Term Store Submission Policy

About Me

I’m Greg Zelfond, a U.S. based SharePoint consultant, and I provide affordable out-of-the-box SharePoint consulting, training, and configuration assistance to small and medium-sized businesses all over the world.

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