Add Rich Text Column in SharePoint Document Library

Problem: Could not add rich text columns to SharePoint document library, Picture Library, and other types of Libraries!

A little background: End-user created a document library with column “Description” as “Multiple lines of text” and expected this column to have the Rich text capability. So, I tried editing the column and found no option to update the type of this column as rich text!

Troubleshooting:

When you add multiple lines of the text field to the custom list, announcement, tasks, etc., You’ll find the Rich text and Enhanced rich text options.

However, on document libraries, these options seem missing! It just displays a Text area without any formatting! It seems you can’t have a rich text column in a document library with SharePoint 2013. So, How do we create a Rich Text column for a Document Library?

Solution: How to Add Rich Text Field to SharePoint Document Library?

While there are many options to get rich text fields in SharePoint 2013 document library like Custom field types, Content Types, etc., here is the easiest way:

1. Open the site in SharePoint designer, Go to List & Libraries, Click on your library
2. Click on Edit columns under Customization >> Double click on the column which you want enable Rich Text functionality >> select the checkbox which says Rich Text and hit OK and then Save.

This fixes the problem!

PowerShell to Set Multiple Lines of Text Field Type to Rich Text in SharePoint:

Setting the “RichText” property of the field to True makes SharePoint 2016 document library field rich text enabled!

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

$SiteURL = "https://intranet.crescent.com/"
$ListName="Documents"
$FieldName="Description" #Internal Name

$Web = Get-SPWeb $SiteURL
$List = $Web.Lists[$ListName]
$Field = $List.Fields[$FieldName]
$Field.RichText = $True
$Field.Update()

Similarly, To make the field type to “Enhanced Rich Text”, Set: $Field.RichTextMode = “FullHtml”

I know this issue exists in all SharePoint versions: Including SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013, and even in SharePoint 2016! And yes, It’s weird, and I’m not sure why Microsoft hasn’t fixed this issue yet!