Understanding the Basics of Collaboration in SharePoint 2010 : Working with Lists and Libraries (part 2) - List Templates, Creating a List

3. List Templates

When you create a new site, several lists are automatically available for use. The site developer should experiment with the different list types before determining which list template provides the best functionality and the features most needed. For example, the Team Site template will create Calendar, Tasks, and Status lists. Each of these lists will provide the user with different functionality.

As in previous versions of SharePoint, the custom list provides a good introduction to using and managing list data. When you create a custom list, it allows you to add views, columns, and items as needed, as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11. SharePoint site list view

• Items Rows of individual data components.

• Columns Define the types of data located in the row. Columns can be created to contain only certain information, such as e-mail addresses, URLs, and dates. Customized and lookup data types are also available. Columns such as Create/Modify Date and Create/Modified By are usually not shown by default; however, they are part of the list.

• Site Action Strip Allows a user or content administrator to access and perform different functions on lists. You can find functions such as changing views, adding columns, and exporting data here.

• Breadcrumb navigation As with previous version of SharePoint, breadcrumb navigation helps to define the user’s location within the SharePoint Farm hierarchy. Having breadcrumb navigation available is important so users can quickly navigate within the various SharePoint sites. By default, breadcrumb navigation is replaced with the Ribbon as actions on content are available to the user.

The new Ribbon toolbars relocate common tasks and dynamically adjust based on your security role. The following images show what a content manager or administrator might see. Figure 12 shows the actions that can be completed on individual items in the list such as a document or list item.

Figure 12. Available actions on the Items tab

Figure 13 shows the actions that can be done on the list itself. These actions allow the administrator or power user to modify and create views, export list items to Excel or a document in other Office applications, and change list settings.

Figure 13. SharePoint 2010 Ribbon bars

4. Creating a List

The process of creating a list is very similar to creating a site. Several list templates are available; Figure 14 shows the available list templates using the new Silverlight menu controls. Each of the default templates shown in Figure 14 showcases different features that are available for use with list data.

Figure 14. SharePoint 2010 Create List types

To create a custom list, a content administrator can go to the SharePoint team site and follow these steps.

1. Click Site Actions and the select More Options to open a new window with all the SharePoint site templates available (Figure 14).

2. Click the List link.

3. Choose the list type you want to create.

4. Type the name for the list and then click Create.

After you have created a list, you will see the new, empty list appear along with the task Ribbon bars described in the previous section. Now you can add data, columns, and views to the list.