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Hello, it's Matt, and welcome to Collaboration Coach.
This time we're going to have a look at Microsoft Lists
and I've got three tips that will help you when you create them.
Creating a list with Microsoft Lists is very easy.
You just go to the app-launcher and you choose the lists app,
then you choose the "new list" button at the top of the home page.
The first thing you're asked is how you'd like to create the list,
and you can see that you can start from blank or you can base it on an existing list,
and if I choose from "blank" here, the next step is to give it a name, description, icon and colour
but my first tip is for those of you who want to import excel spreadsheets and turn them into lists.
This is a great feature if you want to get your data out of Excel and into SharePoint.
When you create a list from Excel,
Microsoft Lists will read the tables in the spreadsheet and allow you to choose one of them to import.
This means you must make sure that your spreadsheet has tables defined before you create the list.
Defining tables is done in Excel,
and it's as easy as selecting the data and then pressing the "insert table" button on the ribbon here.
You can also name your table in the "table design" tab,
and this will make it easier to find when you're doing the import into Lists.
Note that Excel doesn't take spaces in the table name so I'll use underscores here.
When you create the list, you choose "from Excel",
and then you're asked to either browse for a spreadsheet that's already in your OneDrive,
or you can upload one from your computer.
Im going to upload this one from mine.
When I do that it loads the tables it finds in the spreadsheet,
and then it presents them to you to choose from in the drop down at the top here.
I can choose a table I just created called "lists import".
You can see below here that it's found these columns in the table
and then it also shows me what types of column Lists is going to create to store that data.
You can change the selection if you think you need to,
by dropping down the menu and choosing something else.
For example, you could turn a "single line of text" column into a "multiple line of text".
You can also choose not to import the column at all by choosing this option.
Also notice here that I have a message saying "title is a required field and can't be empty".
I included this as another tip because it was something that I had to figure out
and it happens because SharePoint can't have a title column where the item doesn't have data.
The reason I'm seeing this warning is because one of the rows in my spreadsheet is empty.
So all I need to do is cancel the import, go back to the spreadsheet,
delete any empty rows from the table,
save it,
and then start the import again.
Now I've done that you can see that when I start the import process, the message is gone...
...and I can press "next" on the wizard to complete the list creation.
So once that's done, the next step is to name the list and give it a colour and an icon.
And my next tip is to do with where to keep your lists.
When you get to this stage you can choose to save it to "my lists" which is the default,
or to an existing SharePoint site.
So what's the difference?
Adding a list to "my list" means that the list is actually added to your OneDrive
and only you can see it.
Adding it to a SharePoint site means that everyone who has access to the site has access to your list,
so if you want your list to be private, save it to "my lists",
and if you want to share it with your team, save it to a site.
You can always share the list after you've created it
so if you're not sure what to do then create it in "my lists".
One of the great new features of Lists is the templates.
These are pre-built lists that you can use as they are or customise so they are how you want them to be.
When you choose one of the templates it creates a set of columns for you,
formats them nicely, and creates a list of views for you to use as well.
For example, if I choose this one here (the issue tracker)...
...it takes me to a list of all the templates
and I can see how the list will look on the right hand side here.
I can also skip through all the different templates and get a preview for what they'll look like as well.
When you find one that you want to use, you choose the template
and that will take you to a page where you can name the list, choose the details and choose where to save it.
Once you've done that, the list is ready to go.
You can change any of the existing columns and add new ones if you want to.
You can hide a column or format what it will look like.
The template list also has views for me that I can use to filter, sort or group the list.
This view groups the list by priority.
And it also gives you ideas on how to format the list and shows you how to do it.
For example, in this list I have a choice column formatted using the new pill icons,
and I can see how the style has been created and which icons it uses.
So using a template is a way to speed up the process of getting your list up and running
and give you some great ideas on how to make your list look awesome.
So they're your three tips on creating new lists with Microsoft Lists.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.
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