Empowering Users Through SharePoint 2010 Lists (part 2) - Adding a Column in a List and Updating a List Item

Adding a Column in a List and Updating a List Item

Although libraries store documents, and can be extremely useful even if additional metadata columns aren’t added, lists derive their value from the columns that make up the list, so adding columns to lists is a frequently performed task. Figure 5 shows the Create Column window that opens when a user with the manage lists list permission clicks the Create Column button. Similar to in a spreadsheet, a number of different column options are provided. In SharePoint Foundation 2010, these are as follows:

• Single line of text

• Multiple lines of text

• Choice (menu to choose from)

• Number

• Currency

• Date and Time

• Lookup (information already on this site)

• Yes/No (check box)

• Person or Group

• Hyperlink or Picture

  Figure 5. Create Column window in a list.

  

• Calculated (calculation based on other columns)

• External Data

SharePoint Server 2010 Standard or Enterprise also give the option of creating Managed Metadata columns in lists.

In this example, the Choice column is chosen, and several items that will appear in the drop-down menu are provided. Radio buttons or check boxes can also be selected, and fill-in choices can be allowed, as well as a default value provided. After OK is clicked, the column is added, and if the check box is left checked to Add to Default View, the new column will be added to the default view. In the example given immediately above, the new column named Topic can be seen on the right side of the Announcements list in Figure 6, since the Add to Default View check box was selected when then new column was added. The arrow next to the column header Topic is shown selected in Figure 6, and sorting options are provided; once there is content in this column, the different distinct values will be available for selection for the filter. To populate this new column with data, several different sets of steps can be followed, as described in the following three sections.

Figure 6. New column added to a list.

Clicking the Item Title to Edit Content

This first section describes the process of editing content by clicking the title of an item in a list:

1.	The easiest option, and most intuitive is to simply click the title of the item (for example, New Announcement About Big News! shown in Figure 19.31) and the AJAX window for the item in View mode will open.
2.	Then click Edit Item from the View tab, and the item changes to Edit mode, as shown in Figure 7. Now make a change, such as clicking the drop-down arrow next to the Topic field, and select from the provided choices. Figure 7. Edit window for a list item.
3.	Then click Save to save the modification and return to the previous view of the list.

Accessing the Drop-Down Menu to Edit an Item

This section describes the process of editing content by accessing the drop-down menu:

1.	As shown in Figure 8, hover over the Title for the list item in the list, and then access the drop-down menu to the right and click Edit Item. Figure 8. Drop-down menu for a list item.
2.	The list item then opens in Edit mode. Update one or more fields and click Save.

Selecting the Item and Choosing Edit Item

This section describes the process of editing an item by first selecting it and then choosing Edit Item from the Ribbon:

Interacting with Lists Using the Datasheet View

The Datasheet view is extremely useful for quickly entering data into a list, or also for rapidly entering metadata for items in a library. As shown in the preceding three processes, editing a single item can involve several hovers, clicks, more mouse-work, entering the information, and then another click to save the data. Datasheet view appeals to the efficiency conscious part of many users, and should be introduced to new users. Follow these steps to use the Datasheet view in an Announcements list, and most other lists:

1.	Click the List tab under List Tools.
2.	Click the Datasheet View icon in the List tab Ribbon. Figure 9 shows an Announcements list in Datasheet view. The user clicked in an empty cell under the bottom announcement, entered a new announcement title, tabbed past the Modified cell (because this cell will be populated by SharePoint automatically), and then selected Social from the drop-down menu in the Topic column. If the user tried to enter any data in the Modified column, he’ll get a message that says, “The selected cells are read-only.” Figure 9. Datasheet view in a tasks list.
3.	Click Enter, and the selected cell drops to the next row down, triggering a save of the data entered.

Note that the Body column is not visible in this view, so the user can’t actually enter in the body of the announcement.

In Figure 9, the task pane has been extended on the right side of the Datasheet view, and it provides easy access to tools such as Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Custom Sort, Remove Filter, and a number of tools under the Office links section.

With a little experimentation, it can be seen that the Datasheet view allows a user to quickly enter in data in lists (or libraries), cut, and paste into other cells if needed, which dramatically cuts down on the time it takes when compared to selecting items one at a time, accessing the drop-down menu, or selecting the item and then accessing the Edit Item tool on the Ribbon.