With these things in order, let’s start this process in the same manner as with our records management label policy:

  1. Start by selecting the first link in Figure 12.15 to download a blank template:

Figure 12.15 – Selecting Download a blank template to download the template for your file plan

2. Fill out the template to add new retention labels or edit existing ones. If you need further tips on how to do this, please refer to the following link from Microsoft: https://aka.ms/Office365-FilePlanManager.

3. To increase the readability of the template, I have used the Text to Columns option in Microsoft Excel in this demonstration, as shown in Figure 12.16:

Figure 12.16 – The template in a workable Excel workbook

4. There are some caveats when it comes to filling out the template, as described next:

A. LabelName: Maximum length of 64 characters

B. Comment and Notes: Maximum length of 1,024 characters

C. All other values: Unlimited length

5. As presented in Figure 12.17, data has been entered in the template to allow the import of the file plan:

Figure 12.17 – Mock data entered in the template

6. Heading back to the compliance center, we now select the Browse for files… option in the Import wizard, as highlighted in Figure 12.18:

Figure 12.18 – Showing the option to browse your computer for the filled-out .csv template

7. The Browse for files… selection brings us to a well-known file import selection pop-up window where we locate the template and click on Open to upload the file to the compliance center:

Figure 12.19 – Locating the template and uploading it to the compliance center for validation

8. With the validation of our file plan completed, we are presented with Figure 12.20 and can review some statistics of the file plan. The Go Live button takes us to the process of publishing these labels in our Microsoft 365 tenant:

Figure 12.20 – With the validation of the file plan completed, we can now publish our labels

9. With the import completed, our new labels are presented in the view over all retention labels under File plan and can be published accordingly following steps 9-14 in the guide covering Configuring labels for records management in this chapter.

And with that, we have covered the process of importing our own file plan, thus bulk creating retention labels to help us govern our information in Microsoft 365. Up next, we will dig into the topic of configuring automatic retention using file plan descriptors.

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