In this article, using the Document Set welcome page view we will learn how to Show columns only on the Document Set level and hide them inside the document in SharePoint Online.
Document Set welcome page: Show column only on Document Set level (How to customize Document Set welcome page)
Let’s look at the demo,

The “GSD Test Document Library” is the document library name where we have added a text type column named “Hide Me in Document CT”. This column only will be shown in the document set level but will be hidden inside the document view. This is the demo here.
Now, let’s click on any of the document sets (DS0002), we will land into the document view there we will not see this “Hide Me in Document CT” column.

Once we are inside the document set “DS0002”, we cannot see the “Hide Me in Document CT” column anymore. And we can notice that the view got changed from “All Documents” view to “Document View to hide the DS column” – this is the trick here. We will show this trick in the below section.
Implementation steps: Show column only on Document Set level
Below is the step-by-step process to implement the show column only on the Document Set level and hide it inside the document level:
Add content type to document library SharePoint online
We assume that you know how to create a content type in SharePoint Online and how to add to the document library.

Notes:
In our demo, library we have two document sets:
- Document – This is the default document content type
- GSD Test DS CT Show Hide – This is a customs document set type content type.
Column definition in SharePoint (for the demo document library)

View definition in SharePoint (for the demo document library)

Note:
In this there are two views:
- The ‘All Documents” – default View
- The “Document view to hide the DS column” custom view
View settings in SharePoint to show hide column
Now, let’s click on the “Document view to hide the DS column” view.

Note:
- In the view ensure that you don’t select the custom column which you don’t want to show inside the document view, in this demo we have not selected the column “Hide Me in Document CT” for this view.
Similarly, open the default view “All Documents” settings

- In the view ensure that you must select the custom column which you don’t want to show inside the document view, in this demo we have selected the column “Hide Me in Document CT” for this view.
Content type settings in SharePoint online to show hide column
Now, click on the custom content type “GSD Test DS CT Show Hide” from the content type section shown above.
Now, we will get into the content type settings page.

Click on the “Document Set settings” link and configure the below:

Next, from the “Welcome Page View” section select your custom view where you don’t want to show certain columns inside the document set – for this demo, we have selected the “Document view to hide the DS column” custom view.

Click on the OK button. That’s it, we are done with the demo. 🙂
What is the use of Welcome Page View?
Select the view used to display the contents of this Document Set on the welcome page.
How to customize Welcome Page?
You can customize the Welcome Page used for this Document Set, using either your browser to manipulate Web Parts on the Welcome Page or SharePoint Designer to perform more advanced customizations.
Troubleshooting: we cannot edit the welcome page of the Document Set
Sometimes, we may not see the configuration to edit the welcome page in the document set settings page, due to the modern content type settings page, for this we need to switch to the classic content type setting page. However, this behavior is not always the same – as per our experience, sometimes we get to see the edit option of the welcome page in the modern page itself, sometimes we don’t see – this behavior is not consistent. If we get any updates on this from Microsoft we will update the article, meanwhile, if you know the reason for this and write to the comment section, we will include it in the article – this will be much appreciated.
Summary: Document Set welcome page – show column only on Document Set level
Thus, in this article, we have learned the below with respect to showing and hiding columns based on the content type selection in the Document Set and Document Level:
- How do we show columns only on the Document Set level and hide them inside the document in SharePoint Online?
- What is the welcome page in the document set?
- With the little twist, we can reverse this demo – by hiding the column only on Document Set Level and showing it inside the Document in SharePoint online.
See Also: SharePoint Tutorial
You may also like the following SharePoint Content Type articles:
- Office 365: Create content type in SharePoint Online using PnP PowerShell
- Office 365: How to create document library in SharePoint Online using PowerShell?
- why cannot I edit the welcome page of Document Set.
The content type in SharePoint is a hidden gem – to understand it better we will write a detailed article with the real-time use cases of the content type, till then stay tuned and enjoy reading articles from Global SharePoint and If you would like to appreciate our efforts, please write to the below comment section and do share this with your friends and colleagues. 🙂