Trying to create a site column which have its display name as "Author" will raise "The column name that you entered is already in use or reserved.."

Question

I am working on a sharepoint online site collection, and using the UI i have created a new site column with the following name "HRAuthor", and i save the new column. so i got a site column which have its display and its internal name as "HRAuthor". then i wanted to modify the display name of the column to be "Author". so i went to the site column, i edit it, i chnage the name from "HRAuthor" to "Author", but i got this error message:-

The column name that you entered is already in use or reserved. Choose another name.

so i am not sure if i can overcome this problem using pnp script or other means. Now i want the internal name & static name to be the same (HRAuthor), but the display name to be "Author"..

Answer 1

You can add fields using the Add-PnPField method or using the Add-PnPFieldFromXml as below:

1) Using PnPField:

Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://sitecollectionurl"
Add-PnPField -Type "User" -DisplayName "Author" -InternalName "HRAuthor"

2) Using PnPFieldFromXml:

Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://sitecollectionurl"
$web = Get-PnPWeb
$xml = '<Field Type="User" Name="HRAuthor" ID="{27d81055-f208-41c9-a976-61c5473eed4a}" DisplayName="Author" Group="Test" Required="FALSE" StaticName="HRAuthor"/>'
Add-PnPFieldFromXml -FieldXml $xml -Web $web

Answer 2

Enter New name and run this in browser console

function ValidateAndSubmit() {  
       return true; 
    }
    function doesFieldNameConflict(strName) {
        return false; 
    }

You will be now able to save the name.