Create Rules to Route Documents in SharePoint
Use the power of SharePoint 2013 Records Center
July 16, 2014
![Create Rules to Route Documents in SharePoint Create Rules to Route Documents in SharePoint](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt07f68461ccd75245/blte26fab297ee9613f/661cef28ba7a42707b58d5e5/orange-buildings-595x335_0_3.jpg?width=1280&auto=webp&quality=95&format=jpg&disable=upscale)
The SharePoint 2013 Records Center is a powerful tool that can aid in artifact organization, storage, and auditing.
Documents that are sent to the Records Center from other sites need to be routed to the appropriate libraries using rules.
Note that before creating routing rules, it is a good idea to associate content types of incoming documents with document libraries in the Records Center. This makes creating routing rules much easier.
Here is how to create a rule to route an incoming document in the Records Center:
In your Records center site, click the gear icon for Site Actions.
Click Site Settings.
In Site Settings, under the Site Administration heading, click Content Organizer Rules (see Figure 1).
![](https://cet.informabi.com/sites/sharepointpromag.com/files/uploads/2014/07/Create%20Rules%20Fig1.png?width=183&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Figure 1
Note: If you do not see Content Organizer Rules here, ensure that the Content Organizer site feature is active.
On the Content Organizer Rules page (see Figure 2), click new item.
![](https://cet.informabi.com/sites/sharepointpromag.com/files/uploads/2014/07/Create%20Rules%20Fig2.png?width=425&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Figure 2
On the Content Organizer Rules: New Rule page, fill out the following information:
Name: Choose an appropriate name for the new rule, preferably something descriptive and containing the name of the content type to which this rule applies.
Status: Choose “Active” (see Figure 3) and set the priority of the rule.
![](https://cet.informabi.com/sites/sharepointpromag.com/files/uploads/2014/07/Create%20Rules%20Fig3.png?width=286&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Figure 3
Content type: Choose the group and then the type of the content type to which this rule applies. Some custom content types may have alternate names in other sites. If this is the case, select the check box for This content type has alternate names… (see Figure 4) and set the alternate names as needed.
![](https://cet.informabi.com/sites/sharepointpromag.com/files/uploads/2014/07/Create%20Rules%20Fig4.png?width=427&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Figure 4
Property-based conditions (see Figure 5): Setting specific property-based conditions can be very helpful in cases where there are many documents of the same content type, but which should be separated based on other metadata for record-keeping purposes.
![](https://cet.informabi.com/sites/sharepointpromag.com/files/uploads/2014/07/Create%20Rules%20Fig4_0.png?width=427&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Figure 5
Destination (see Figure 6): Click the Browse button and choose the library in the Records Center to which this rule should bring documents.
![](https://cet.informabi.com/sites/sharepointpromag.com/files/uploads/2014/07/Create%20Rules%20Fig6.png?width=535&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Figure 6
Click OK.
You now have a rule to route documents inside the Records Center.
If you want to delete a routing rule, simply choose the rule and delete it from the list as with any SharePoint list. If you want to simply deactivate the rule instead, edit the rule and choose “Inactive” under Status.
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